Skyla's Gym Challenge
by Zangoose-Kira
Summary: What does it take to be an underling in a Unovian gym? Leader Skyla holds a two week course to see if anyone is able to withstand the training. But is that all that's in play? Rated T for Tim.
1. Utopia

"Listen up, maggots!" she announced to us, the poor, pathetic crowd of wannabe trainers that looked up to her (and all of the others in her profession for that matter). "This training that you have all willingly signed up for will be starting today! You knew the risks, now you'll live through them. And you will use the Pokémon I assign, got it?"

We nodded as a group, accepting the uneasy life of intense training ahead. Well, what could we say? We had after all signed up for this; we were willingly going through this to make something of ourselves.

The lady announced again to the crowd, "So, since Mistralton is a small place, you'll have to set up camp in the airplane holds and cargo planes. Just make sure you don't nap on the runway when the daily flight is in progress!" she said with a slight hint of malevolence.

We nodded once again. What could I say? I wanted this more than anything.

"Not only will you be learning about the charms and strengths of the bird Pokémon of Unova, but you will be living, battling, and fighting for balance as well as your life during these two weeks." The female gym leader continued her little speech. "And the graduation of being my official underling will be at the top of Celestial Tower, though I've only known five trainers to do so. Good luck to you all…" she finished threateningly.

The gym leader marched off, looking much more serious than I thought she would be. I mean, she looked very nice and lively on the outside. She had red hair (an indication to me of a fun-loving or hyperactive person) and a little flower thing in her hair, sparkling blue eyes, and a flight suit that looked far too revealing for a pilot. But what was I to say? She was Unova's only flying-type Pokémon gym leader and I was one of the hopefuls to train under her.

Why Skyla? Out of all the Gym Leaders of Unova, why choose Skyla to train under? Well, I wasn't quite sure myself. Maybe it was because I've always wanted to fly, and flying Pokémon are nice. I'm not allergic to bird Pokémon like I am to Lilipups and Purrloins. Maybe it was because I didn't like the thought of serving food as well as Pokémon battles at the same time in Striaton City. Maybe it was that a library in Nacrene was too stuffy, the huge maze of the city Castelia was too overwhelming, Nimbasa was too loud and amusement oriented with crazy sports fans, the underground gym of Driftveil made me claustrophobic, Icirrus city too blasted cold all the time, and Opelucid City was half modern/futuristic and half ancient with fierce dragons guarding the place (I shiver at the mere mention of dragons). It might have been that I hated everywhere else.

I liked to think that she was the nicest gym leader, but I didn't guess right about that. I wanted to think practicing flying with Pokémon by sticking yourself in the gym's cannons would be fun. I wanted to think that birds were the easiest Pokémon to take care of. (I didn't expect molting, nesting, and wet poop, I'll tell you that.)

But I think what _really _brought me to the tiny shipping community of Mistralton (the city of wind-blown leaves that has the delivery slogan of "Quick and Safe") was that I wanted to break a norm in Skyla's gym. Up until now, she's only allowed guy trainers that either work on airplanes or are pilots themselves to train in her gym. She keeps the whole gym like that in honor of her legendary pilot grandfather I suppose, but I think that there needs to be a change. I want to become the first female trainer in the Mistralton gym since Skyla took up the job of gym leader.

It was a stretch, but if I really liked flying-type Pokémon enough after these two weeks of hard training, I could even work my way up to succeeding Skyla myself. Did I have doubts? Yeah, lots since I heard her lovely **(sarcasm)** introduction and invitation to sleep on the ground or in cargo planes that normally don't have breathable air in them. I've heard from many of my friends that what I was doing was stupid. For one, Skyla is one of the harsher gym leaders to their subordinates (I didn't believe them at the time).

I've heard about other gyms in the Pokémon world, though it hasn't been all that long since Kanto, Johto, Sinnoh, and Hoenn finally opened up their culture and sent trainers to us. From news coming from the other regions, I heard there are only two other flying-type gyms: Falkner of Johto and Winona of Hoenn. Falkner, I've heard, is a push-over gym leader. He fights noob trainers and tends to go easy on them. Winona has said to be an air-head on some occasions (Who seriously says "I have become one with Bird Pokémon" and doesn't come across as being weird or high?) even though she is in the same placement as Skyla in the order of Pokémon Gym Leaders. If I want to be with bird Pokémon (and certainly not **"one"** with bird Pokémon), then my best chances are with Skyla.

I was brought out of my thoughts when one of the official underlings (lucky him) started leading us to the additional hanger where the trainers would set up camp. The guy was in a mechanic's outfit, one of those guys who got in the gym to fix Skyla's plane if it broke down. He introduced himself as Cliff the mechanic. My first impression of him was that he didn't care much about hygiene and probably came from Twist Mountain due to his name. But hey, it's a first impression, it's not like I guessed right or anything.

The group of hopefuls (us) followed Cliff the Mechanic to the hanger; an empty, concrete-floored, metal-walled, and generally not warm area. The ceiling was huge. Seriously, my Vullaby could have flapped her little wings and traveled around the airspace for a while. The place had to be tall and wide to fit a bulky cargo plane. Since it was still a warm fall, the planes could sit out on the landing strip instead of hunkering down in the winter, though that was soon coming. The cold winds were just weeks away, I could feel it.

I glanced at the other people who had wanted this self-torture. Most of them were guys (I guess they saw the ratio of guy trainers to girls and thought being male was already getting them half-way there) and pretty well-built. Some of them almost looked like they had flown a helicopter, crop duster, or something like that before.

The requirements for getting even this far was that you had to have at _least _one flying-type Pokémon. I wondered how many others have a Vullaby like me, or if they caught a low-life Pidove and thought that they were good. Don't get me wrong, Pidoves, Tranquills, and Unfezants are all cool and tough, but they are so dang common! In my Pokémon journey I traveled all the way to Opelucid City to get my Vullaby because I wanted a different kind of bird Pokémon, although I should have trained my team **a little** more before charging into the grass (Bouffalants are the scariest thing I have ever seen!)…

The Mechanic named Cliff waved at us and said, "Don't worry, Skyla won't take it too hard on you the first day. After you find a place to set your stuff, the lady Gym Leader has arranged that we all eat in the Pokémon center!" he seemed very excited to eat in a Pokémon Center.

I told myself that this was Mistralton –a town of how many, 100 people? How many restaurants could such a small place have? One: the Pokémon Center. I should have figured. Oh the gloriousness of small towns **(sarcasm)**! I grew up in one, so I can't say that I hate them.

But enough of that, it was time to set down my huge backpack of stuff and join these other hopefuls in a rigorous training exercise. My only hope was that if I didn't make Skyla's cut I would still be recognized by my family.

**A/N: Zangoose-Kira here for a new story! This is the first time I've written a Pokémon story in first person, so bear with me (I generally don't like writing in first person, but you get a lot of character development in exchange for seeing into other people. Oh well, this is a test that I hope to finish.) Reviews and constructive criticisms are welcome :)**

**Edit: Due to some long thinking over my story, I have come to the conclusion that I can't work on both ends of the story at once. I know the beginning is rocky and harder to get through, and I thought editing it would help, but I'm going to try to be content with my original work and revise it when the story is complete, or maybe not at all. I suppose originals always have a flavor that the remake doesn't have. So that is why I'm putting the original first chapter up again.**

**Now that I'm doing this and back in school, I think I'll be able to write more frequently. Not to mention that once B/W 2 comes out, I will try to reference that. **

**And again, thank you for all you readers supporting my work. It means a lot to me :)**

**~Zangoose-Kira**


	2. Bonding Time

As I was walking with the group of trainers that hoped that Skyla would accept us in her gym, I thought to think back to my past and how I even got the nerve to try this. After all, I could already sense the tension felt between the other competitors. They all understood that less competition could mean that they themselves could get higher chances for themselves. I didn't want to think like this, but it creeps up into your head. I needed to think about my past instead of thinking of poisoning the guy who would sit next to me.

I was born in Lacunosa Town, growing up on the scary stories of a man-eating Pokémon that lived a mile from my town. Not the best childhood, I'll admit. Sure we had a good, healthy respect for the dragon Pokémon that prowled around at night, eating up naughty children. Let's just say I won't even train an Axew, no matter how much other people try to convince me it's different from the man-eating thing, it's not! It's a dragon!

When I was in 5th grade (In Unova, we start schooling in preschool sometimes at the age of three or four, but real schooling comes at kindergarten, then first grade. So you start Kindergarten at age five, so in 5th grade I would have been around ten years old) we moved to a better place for my upbringing. Luckily my parents understood by age ten that I was going to be afraid of dragon-types for the rest of my life, so they decided to move to a healthier place: Anville Town.

Don't know it? It's an even tinier place than Mistralton that you can only get to by subway from Nimbasa. Happy times of isolation and weekend traders plagued those five years in Anville Town. At least I got to see a really cool train there **(sarcasm)**! I guess I learn more than I ever needed to about trains and subways in that time. I was homeschooled because it was too expensive to take a daily subway ride to the nice places in Nimbasa, even though my dad worked in the subway system. At least the house was cheap.

When I became of training age (Unova's law states that the training age is fifteen years) and ready to start Pokémon training (It's kind of like a rite of passage here), I had to take a long subway ride from Anville to Nimbasa, then a Darmanitan ride across the desert to Castelia, then take a long and boring ride by truck to Striation. Then it got even better **(sarcasm)**! Striation was where I learned that you had to walk all the way back to a dinky little place called Nuvema Town to get a starter Pokémon. By then I was mad and a few days behind schedule that I simply caught a Lilipup and started my journey without the help of a certain Professor Juniper.

Well, you can imagine that I didn't get very far after I realized that I was allergic to Lilipups. My eyes watered and I sneezed violently when I called the little puppy out. Poor guy, it wasn't his fault. I gave him to a different trainer and I was left without a Pokémon in the city of Nacrene. I had all the essentials for Pokémon training; Pokéballs, potions, and even a few berries and TMs I found on the ground. (I wonder sometimes why random things are lying around, but it feels so much a scavenger hunt that I don't care much about it.) Who really needs a Pokédex anyways? They are just tools that a prof gives you because they want you to do what they couldn't and catch the whole of Pokémon kind!

I then conveniently found a traveling breeder. (There are a lot of traveling breeders that go around advertising the _ideal Pokémon team_; it's only new to the other people from across the sea.) I talked to the traveling breeder called Eugene (Hint, he's a famous person in Unova and I was a little aflutter when he offered to give me some of his Pokémon! But he's not the Eugene that chases after Suicune.) and he pulled out a whole list of Pokémon that could be found in Unova. I told him about my allergies and he eliminated some choices. I told him I feared dragons, he crossed off some more.

Eugene then gave me a few suggestions for a team. I took them since I didn't have any Pokémon to protect me. Eugene then gave me two Pokémon eggs and told me to keep them warm. He also handed me a hand book on raising young Pokémon (written by himself) and an Xtrasceiver number if things went bad. I didn't know how he got Pokémon eggs so fast, but he apparently carries a whole padded bag full of them.

After staying in Nacrene, admiring the blooming artist's work in the warehouses, eating at the nice café, and browsing through the library (and getting attacked by trainers who thought I was taking Leonora's gym challenge), my eggs finally started showing signs of hatching. The first Pokémon that hatched was beautiful little boy Tympole. Well, beautiful in my eyes. He didn't have fur and had little headphones on his head, making him kind of endearing. Granted, he wasn't much else beside a head and tail, but he was something.

The second egg hatched while I was feeding the little baby Tympole a day later. Then I realized that I was glad I didn't try to take an entire team as eggs. Taking care of two Pokémon was hard enough. The second Pokémon that took up lots of my time was a rare Pokémon called Larvesta. Since I didn't get a Pokédex, I learned the hard way about this species being a fire bug and all.

My Larvesta didn't help me out with understanding Pokémon training as much as my Tympole did. Tympole, who I later named Len, liked to wait for instructions and liked to bounce around on his little tail while singing his Round attack. The female Larvesta, called Sundazzle (out of spite to counter her inherent evilness), went her own way and sometimes I thought I completely lost the little fire bug. Eventually I would find her romping around in the grass, looking for a fight with much tougher Pokémon.

Concerned for her? Yes. Did I care when she got hurt? Yes and no… Did I use her as my first Pokémon? Sometimes…

"Hey, what's your name?" one of the hopefuls in the present time cut my thoughts of my Pokémon team short.

I blinked quickly and saw that a guy was waiting for an answer. "Oh, I'm Utopia, Utopia Fletcher." I said with a hint of distaste. Yeah, my parents thought it would be cool if I had a rare name. I tried to be polite and asked in return, "And yours?"

The teenager hopeful answered, "I'm Malcolm Kwester."

_Oh Landorus,_ this kid had a famous name behind him! "Really, as in related to the famous sibling trio Kwester?" I asked, turning slightly green from envy.

"The very same, I'm cousin to Hess, Eugene, and Ivy Kwester." The guy responded. "They are a lot older than me, but our family branches out quite a bit."

Yep, that Eugene breeder guy I met in Nacrene who gave me Len the Tympole and Sundazzle my Larvesta was the same Eugene Kwester. Let's just say that these three siblings all got a Starter Pokémon from Professor Juniper, built teams, them brought the three wind spirits of Unova (Tornadus, Thundorus, and Landorus) under control.

I looked him over a little more carefully. He had short red hair (kind of like Hess Kwester) cut in a way that it looked like it was leaning one way from the wind. His face was longer than what I deem usual, and his ears seemed to bland into his head. His eyes were wide and green. His build was typical of an athlete, muscled and a little lanky, like a runner.

Now I felt that I stood little chance of getting into the gym if this famous kid was going in. Maybe I should slip some Pokémon herbs (the bitter kind) into his food… No, he was being nice and I shouldn't think such weird thoughts and bout poisoning people.

I managed to choke out, "That's cool…"

"So, were your ancestors arrow-makers?" he asked, once again showing his ability for conversations and my lack thereof.

I didn't know what the heck he was talking about. "Huh?" I mumbled.

"Fletcher means arrow maker. I just wanted to ask." Malcolm said kindly.

I was determined to remember that and show off to my friends later that I know what my last name means now. I cleared my throat and continued the painful conversation. "My ancestors are pretty deep-rooted in Unova, though I think most of ours are since we only were allowed to make contact with the overseas nations recently. Yeah, boring I know." I only knew that my dad worked in the subway system. What did my family do before that? I had no clue. _Maybe I should ask sometime._

"History isn't boring," the red-head smiled back mischievously as if I said a funny thing.

I needed to work on people skills. Homeschooling in tiny Anville Town didn't help one iota. I did have friends; they are called "internet friends"… I choked out, "So… you've obviously have good people backing you up in the Pokémon journey, huh?" Yes, once again I showed off my incompetence.

"Yeah, I get that a lot. I don't have one of the Unova starters though, even though I could have gotten any one that I wanted. Instead of a Tepig I wanted a Darumaka. What Pokémon do you have?" He evidently liked to keep up the conversation. We were already in the Pokémon center by the time he asked this.

Cliff the Mechanic paid for our meal tickets at the front counter and led us to the basement where the café was. I knew it was more of a buffet style thing, but calling it a café makes it sound so much more sophisticated. I finally realized the true number of how many of us hopefuls there were: twenty even.

I almost forgot the question before I sat down at a booth table. Malcolm sat next to me and two others (a guy and a girl) sat across from me in the booth. I tried to ignore the two people I didn't know and answered Malcolm, "I have a Palpitoad, a Larvesta-"

I was interrupted by Cliff. The mechanic addressed the hopefuls and said, "Thank you for joining us today in Mistralton. If you didn't catch it before, I am one of the trainers under Skyla. I will help in being your guide to these two weeks. So, feel free to eat to your heart's content and talk with each other. Something that is crucial to being a trainer is teamwork."

I didn't really consider working with other people all that important. Sure, I had to be at an understanding with my Pokémon, but why other people? It was awkward as it was to talk with this overly friendly famous Malcolm guy, why meet others that might be competing against me?

Cliff smiled and started going down the buffet line, taking up some food on his plate, as if to cue the rest of us to eat as well. I observed the buffet from afar. To me it looked like typical Unovian food, which was saying nothing was truly original to Unova itself. We bragged of Castelia Cones, but everyone knew they originated in Sinnoh. Yeah, I care about that kind of stuff…

Malcolm looked cheery and said, "Well, how about we talk after eating? I'm starved! You wouldn't believe how long it took to fly from Undella Town to Mistralton! My Braviary was gasping for breath by the time we landed."

I smiled, though inside I frowned_. Landorus! He already has a Braviary! His Pokémon must be super strong… My Vullaby isn't strong enough to carry me yet and he has a Braviary; the evolved form of Rufflet, the male counterpart to Vullaby!_

The other two people agreed and stood up from the table and went to stand in line. Malcolm waited for me, which made me feel uncomfortable. Yeah, I had only internet friends and they don't generally eat food with you. I stood up and joined the friendly red-head.

I waited in line with him. Thanks to my hesitation we ended up in the back of the line. I hoped that after all the guys got done glopping everything on their plates that I could still get some food. Malcolm gave me a list of his Pokémon, obviously proud of them and since we were just waiting, why not talk?

"My team is pretty good, I have to say. My Braviary is one of my best Pokémon. He's so strong. He evolved early because he and I were training so much and had a great time. He was my starter Pokémon. My cousins Ivy and Eugene wanted me to either have a Woobat or Sigilyth because they trained one really well, but I stuck with Rufflet. I raised him up a few levels and took on the Striation gym leaders single-handedly! Since my starter was flying type, they all decided to fight me, but Rufflet beat Cress, Cilian, and Chili!" he blabbered.

It was a nice kind of blabbering though. I didn't talk much with other trainers and I didn't know that they doted on their Pokémon like me.

He got to the line and began to pile on some meat, vegetables, fruit, and bread onto his plate, pretty much all on top of each other. While taking the food from the buffet line, he continued talking. "My Rufflet was so strong that I thought we could go the whole way with just me and him, you know? But I fought Leonora in Nacrene and I lost. Rufflet and I went to Pinwheel forest and found a few Pokémon to catch and train. I caught a Cottenee and a Timburr all on my own."

I picked up a plate and helped myself to some Oran berries (People can eat berries just as well as Pokémon can), then found some remains of pasta and took a bit of it. Then I completed the plate with a blob of chocolate pudding, making my plate perfectly divided in three. I walked back to my place in the booth and Malcolm stood up to let me sit by the wall.

He stopped talking about his Pokémon as he ate. I had never really seen anyone scarf down food like that before, really. He pretty much inhaled the mass of food! I looked at my perfect piece of food art and ate the pudding first with a spoon.

I glanced at the other two trainers eating and noticed that the girl only had vegies and fruit (vegetarian? I guessed so). The other guy was giving everyone else in the buffet area evil glances between little forkfulls of some sort of noodles that I didn't see when going through the line. I guessed this guy would suspect malicious intentions from others…

I felt the silence weighing down on me, making the table atmosphere feel awkward. I decided to introduce myself to the other two trainers just to show that I wasn't completely shy. "Um, hi…" I said and caught the attention of the other two. "My name is Utopia Fletcher… who are you two?"

The girl, a gentle-looking thing that could have shattered under a fierce look, replied, "My name's Jamie." Nothing more, just her first name. She had blonde hair with pink streaks, almost pronouncing that she loved Audinos, cuddled with Purrloins, and doted over Zoruas and Emolgas: all the cute Pokémon. _What in Landorus' name made her want to sign up for this torture? If she didn't get tougher than she looked, then she was going to quit after the first day,_ I thought. _Then again, wouldn't that be better for me, getting ahead? That was the nature of the game after all…_ but I didn't want to think that. She was another girl competing for the right to be an underling, just like me. Maybe we could try to work together?

The other guy made an excuse to not talk by shoving food into his mouth. He paused and finally said, "Some call me… Tim?" _great,_ I thought, _he's got a really common name_. There might be a different Tim in this group and I might end up calling him Sable or Adrian because he looks more like an Adrian. I mean, he seemed shifty and dark, why be named Tim? His hair was about as dark as mine and his skin was really white, giving him the look of an emo kid. I might end up nicknaming him Sasuke in my head.

I nodded politely as I could. I hated awkward silences, so I tried to be like Malcolm and ask questions. It was more fun talking about other people than about myself. "So, um… why are you guys here?"

Tim gave me a look that told me that I was a stupid girl. His pale eyelids half-covered his dark eyes and his thin eyebrows raised. "I don't know, what do you think?" he responded testily.

_Sorry, Sasuke…_ I thought to him wryly. _Jus' trying to talk… I guess you don't like that, do you emo? _

Malcolm stopped inhaling his food and gave Sasuke/Tim a critical stare. "Hey, lay off would you?"

I didn't entirely like that. I could stand up for myself. I barely met this guy and now the red-head was defending me from the emo? I wanted to say that I was ok and that Tim emo-man could just push off for all I cared, but Tim glared at Malcolm and ground out, "Sorry, I didn't know she was your girlfriend." He gave us a dark look, as if daring either me or the famous Malcolm to counter it.

This trainer-bonding thing wasn't going to be very smooth…


	3. First Test Already?

**Author's Note: Italics are thoughts, Bold is to show emphasis, and underlining is to show sarcasm.**

**Second Note: I don't own Pokémon, Skyla, the town of Mistralton, the kinds of Pokémon mentioned, Cliff the mechanic (he's a real trainer in Skyla's gym), the other real trainers of Skyla's gym, and the random Minccino standing around in the shipping building.**

Well, we were getting along just swell! Tim the emo boy glared at Malcolm the famous boy while I felt embarrassed and the sweet girl Jamie politely ate her food like nothing was happening. Weren't we the greatest of friends? Only met twenty or so minutes ago and now we wanted to tear out each other's throats out. That's what I get for choosing to join Skyla's brigade…

Just as Malcolm was going to fall into Tim's trap of saying that he barely knew me in the slight, my lovely Larvesta decided that she was cramped in her confines of her Pokéball. _Oh Sundazzle, I really hate you sometimes…_ The fire bug called Larvesta jumped out of her Pokéball in a flash of red and landed on my lap. She then sniffed my plate and chomped on an Oran berry before I could even protest.

Tim the emo dude smirked as if the presence of my little fire-bug was only confirmation of my stupidity.

Malcolm on the other hand regarded the little daughter of the sun (Read a book about Larvesta, they are thought to be born of the sun) with admiration. "Hey, I didn't think about sharing my food with my Pokémon, I usually give them Pokémon chow afterwards. Maybe my Cottonee will get along with your Larvesta." Was I surprised that he already knew the name of my Pokémon? Not at all. If he was related to famous people, heroes and breeders no less, then he would have an ample knowledge of Unovain Pokémon. I was lucky that I found a book on Larvesta when she first hatched or else I would have had to stay in the Pokémon center multiple times due to burning. Flame body ability equals lots of pain for the unsuspecting trainer.

"Are you sure-?" I was about to say _"Cottonee won't get toasted by my lava bug?"_ but he was already flashing out an ultra-ball. Yes, and ultra-ball… it must be amazing to be famous…

Famous red-head called out the little fluffy cotton seed Pokémon on his lap and handed it a little piece of bread. The Cottonee gratefully chewed on it and purred. Wait, purred? I didn't know Cottonees (or is the plural form Cottoni?) purred!

The dark man Tim seemed to take the little grass Pokémon as a joke. "Seriously, why do you have such a weak Pokémon? Only girls like those Pokémon." Now he was just trying to get on people's nerves. I tried to think why in the world someone would be so blatant and rude in the first place. Was it a tactic to make an opponent lose focus from anger? No, I had to be overthinking this. This challenge was getting to my head…

Jamie stood up and, though I thought she was angry with the conversation, she actually went to get seconds on her food. A small girl getting second helpings before someone like Malcolm the food-inhaler? What was this chic hiding?

Sundazzle, being the evil and naughty bug that she was, focused her blue eyes on the little cotton ball Pokémon. I was about to return Sundazzle to stop her from toasting the little creature on a stick and thus ruining any chance Malcolm had of being a slight friend, but she surprised me by turning on Tim the emo and spitting out a little Flame Burst attack at the trainer.

Tim jumped up and began to pat where the ball of fire had hit him, trying to put out the flames. I wanted to help Tim, but I felt better watching and laughing. Maybe the little fire-bug knew more than I did about the right and wrong kinds of people.

Tim doused the small flames on his now ruined shirt with the glass of water he had drunk out of not two minutes ago. He glared at me and my Larvesta, undoubtedly wishing a slow and painful death in this gym challenge.

I didn't care, it was the most fun I had people-wise for a long time. I had had funny moments with Pokémon, but this was funnier! I didn't stifle my laughs because I thought they were deserved. I found myself laughing so hard that I snorted terribly. After that, I calmed myself so I wouldn't ever make a Tepig sound like that again.

Malcolm looked amused but unwilling to let Tim hate me or him. I guess he's the kind of person who wants to be everyone's friend… "Hey, let's call it a truce, 'kay?" he held out his right hand while his left held up the little cotton ball Pokémon purring and munching on bread.

Tim on the other hand was either embarrassed or so angry that he stormed off without another word. If I had watched him walk all the way out, I would have sworn he would've kicked a table in rage. He's not an emotionless emo I guess, more of an angst one.

I giggled a little and patted the white bug-hair on Sundazzle's head. Obviously bug-like hair doesn't make me sneeze, and neither does cotton, or else I would've been begging the famous Malcolm to return his Pokémon from whence it came. "I didn't expect that…" I said, showing my amusement.

Jamie returned to the table and sat down, eating her food without question of where Tim the emo had gone or why the seat beside her was covered in water droplets or even why the entirety of the trainers in the room were staring at us. No, Just-Jamie ate, in a world of her own. I'm just going to say that I'm going to watch out for the creepy Jamie from now on. Maybe she's a robot…

Cliff the mechanic saw the dark haired guy stomp off and came to our table with a stern look on his face. He made the connection between Tim and my Larvesta quickly. "You are not allowed to use your Pokémon to attack each other in this nice café. I suggest you return that Pokémon before I get you thrown out." His voice wasn't completely angry, but he knew his authority.

I jumped and returned the bug as fast as I could. I didn't know what else I wanted to be in life besides training in a gym, so my Pokémon would have to learn that I was under a tough law now. Then again, a new life choice might be easier to come by… maybe I could take up the gym challenge… or maybe not. I can't imagine myself as the Pokémon **Master **of Unova, no way!_ What am I good at? _I needed to think about that tonight… I nodded in agreement and mumbled an apology to the mechanic called Cliff for my Larvesta being a jerk to a jerk, but he didn't catch it.

I was about to ask Malcolm to stand up and let me get some more food, but Cliff had decided that we had eaten enough. Cursed luck for being in the back of the line in the first place! I looked over at Jamie, the lucky one who got more food before we had to go. I looked again and saw that her plate was empty! I examined her and thought, _she's got a young-looking face, solemn eyes, and is as skinny as can be. Much skinnier than myself!_ And yet here she was, completed in eating two whole plates worth of buffet food. I mentally shuddered again, she was super strange now. I half wondered if her face was her real face, and if I pulled on her hair, the mask would come off to reveal an Elgyem actually operating her. Did I have weird daydreams? You bet!

Marcus – wait, no, wrong name-, I mean Malcolm returned his ball of fluff to his Pokéball (Stinking ultra-ball…) and let me out of the booth. He grinned and began to talk a little about his cotton ball. "Even though Cottonee is a grass-type Pokémon, when she grows up, she'll learn moves like gust and hurricane, so I didn't know if she would be allowed to fight in Skyla's gym you know?"

I nodded but turned my focus away from him. Right now Cliff was taking the rest of us back to our places. In other words, since I torched a jerk out eating was cut short and now we had to sleep on the warm and soft concrete of the hanger. I wanted to act like I was innocent of our early exit, but I felt my cheeks redden and thus giving myself away.

Other trainers, white and black skinned alike (Unova boasts of having ethnic diversity and equality), were forming a line behind Cliff and walking out of the café. I joined the line after a super tall dude with super short hair and a large massive red jacket that made him look much bulkier than I guessed he was. Malcolm fell in step behind me and fell gratefully silent. I didn't know where the robot girl Jamie went, but as long as she wasn't radioing Mars for a U.F.O., I didn't care what she was doing.

I followed the tall dude out of the basement and out of the Pokémon Center. It was about evening time now, with the sun beginning to turn the sky orange. I looked forward to getting some rest and thinking things over. After all, I was still second-guessing myself for starting this challenge. Flying Pokémon were ok, I didn't love them a huge amount… Once again I was spacing off.

"Trainers, the first assignment of the training program will begin shortly. I will take you to Skyla's gym and she will tell you what to do. You are not to address her; you will only get that privilege after a week of training." The ever so helpful Cliff mechanic man addressed us.

That was new to me, we couldn't address Skyla?_ What was she, a legendary Pokémon? _I didn't check to see if Malcolm was thinking along the same lines. Another thing bothered me. Unless we were training inside, we weren't going to have much time to participate in this first assignment. What was the deal here? This was Mistralton, a rinky-dink place where people shipped packages and vegies. What else was there to do here? Why the rush? I thought to myself_, maybe Skyla just wants to come across like a drill sergeant…_

So we walked after the gym underling to the far away gym placed on the landing strip (Who puts a gym on a landing strip in the first place?). On the way I noticed a few more things about the tiny town that I hadn't noticed on the way up. There was a control tower, a few residential houses, and gardens everywhere. It was autumn so most of the crops were harvested and shipped off already, but it was still weird to see a garden in everyone's yard. And I mean **everyone.**

Then as I was watching the few children romping around in their front lawns, pretending to be a Pokémon or Pokémon trainer of sorts, I saw Tim again. The dreaded emo glowered at me from a distance. He was following the group, but off to the side and away from the others. Did I still think he was a bit paranoid? Whatever gave you that idea? But Tim looked different, mainly because his charred skirt was off and hanging on his finger and draped over his back as if it was a cape. I unfortunately saw him without a shirt on.

I looked away from the topless emo, but I had to admit that he wasn't terrible looking. He wasn't sculpted, more like lanky. His chest was bear and seemed way too white to be living flesh. I tried to think of other things besides Tim and his wardrobe change. Don't get me wrong, I don't squee when I see a shirtless guy; it makes me **uncomfortable**. Again, I don't get out often and don't swim a whole lot either.

Ahem, the group of us trainers made it to the landing strip, a whole line of black asphalt marked with painted lines and a few skid marks. I didn't want to think of what might have caused the skid marks. As far as I knew, they could've been made from a crash.

Skyla, the scantily-clad gym leader, stood with her hip out to one side, a sign of attitude. I gulped as I saw her leg resting on a cage of Pidoves. There was about twenty of those little grey birds in the cage all jumping about and flapping their wings. If I watched close enough, I could even see their little hearts thudding against their ribcages.

All the hopefuls gathered around her, hanging on her words. I even felt the clear distinction of power. This lady was allowed to dress so weirdly because it defined her as an important person (Seriously, take a look at the Champion Alder and see what I mean by dressing weird). She smirked to us, as if enjoying the thought of making us suffer… maybe that was just me.

Cliff scuttled to Skyla's side, joining two other mechanics and two pilots. These other were the accepted gym underlings, and they looked like they had fought tooth and claw to keep their position. One of the guys with the nametag of Arnold looked more like a gladiator or war hero than a mechanic. _I'll dub him Arnold Schwarzenegger, complete with Austrian accent, body building, and movie staring. I'll be able to remember him better that way anyways, _I thought. I know I take first impressions to the max… the other didn't stand out to me, so I looked back to the Gym Leader.

Skyla called out to us, "Welcome to the first test. It's relatively simple concept, I release these collared Pidoves and you capture one and bring it back. The rules are that you can't kill it, you can only catch one Pidove, and you have the time limit of 24 hours. The Pidoves will stay within a two-mile radius, so I don't think that it should take you that long. After it begins, you can either track them down immediately or run back to the hanger to get your stuff."

_Oh Landorus…_

"Begin!" the Gym Leader cried and kicked the caged, freeing the twenty some birds from the small cage.

In a dash of grey feathers they took to the air in every direction. I quickly decided that if we had 24 hours, it was going to be an overnighter. I turned tail and ran to the hanger as quickly as I could to get my stuff so that I could camp out. I had my Pokémon on my person at all times and little Sundazzle would probably make a fire and Len the Palpitoad could provide water for whatever, but I wanted to camp.

Obviously, lots of other trainers were thinking along the same lines. Other joined in the race to get their stuff before the Pidoves completely disappeared. I saw Tim glaring at me once again for toasting his shirt, as if I had known about this first test and that I had done it to delay him. I looked away from Mr. Emo and dashed into the crowded hanger. I scrambled around to find my camper backpack on the ground.

I found it and witnessed another trainer stepping on it. I grumbled and hoisted the thing on my shoulders. I just hoped that my Pokechow box didn't rupture and cover the whole of my other items with kibble. I didn't think I had anything breakable in my backpack, no family heirlooms or expensive grandma's gift.

I ran as quickly as I could back to the entrance of the hanger and looked up to the sky. _Landorus, all the Pidoves are gone from the sky!_ This was going to be a very irritating test!


	4. Getting Off to a Bad Start

So there I was, poor Utopia Fletcher, standing on a landing strip of Mistralton Town and staring up at the sky, wishing that I had thought to take my backpack with me to dinner. But no, I had to fall into the Gym Leader's trap and rush to get my stuff so that I could track down a collared Pidove. But lo and behold, not a single grey bird was in sight. _Landorus, I sucked…_

I gave a heavy sigh and looked at what other trainers were doing. To my surprise, they didn't seem as depressed as me. Lots of the guys ran off of the landing strip and into the forest to find one of twenty collared birds. It felt like a game show where you had to be the first to complete the task and get the reward… wait. Did the first person to get a collared Pidove to Skyla win? No, that couldn't be. The course was two weeks long; it couldn't be over within a day.

I grumbled curses to the Wind Pokémon spirits, Tornadus, Thundorus, and the head honcho Landorus. Even though Unova considers itself pretty modern, we still have Pokémon of thunderstorms, windstorms, and plentiful harvest. I tend to say "Landorus" like a curse, but I wouldn't doubt that there is some obscure shrine to that blasted Pokémon somewhere in the region. Landorus might give people a good harvest, but I didn't care. I didn't see it and I didn't really respect it. I respected Kyurem with fear (for my life), but not Pokémon that looked half man and half cloud.

I finally stopped staring forlornly around and took off to find a blasted common bird with a collar to earn Skyla's favor. Twisted? I'd argue that point!

Tim stomped by me, this time properly clothed in a new shirt that had a picture of a creepy anime figure looming forward as a design. The emo guy continued past me at a faster pace, clearly ticked. I started to think of him as immature. I mean, only a little kid would refuse to talk and stomp right by people in a huff over a burned t-shirt, right? I stopped and thought _what if I tagged after him? Would working with other people help in this wild Pidove chase? _

I looked around to see if Malcolm was there, but he wasn't. I would imagine that he just took out his flashy Braviary and took to the sky after a Pidove_. If I had an electric-type Pokémon, I would've thought to shock one before it flew away. But no, all I have is a fire-bug, a Palpitoad, a vulture baby, and a Skunfi- _DARN IT! I almost forgot that while milling around Icirrus I stepped on a flat fish, fought it off with Len the Palpitoad's ground moves, and caught it. Stunfisk (really hard to say it if you are thinking of Skuntank at the same time) was the name of the Pokémon that was ground and electric type, despite the obvious water-type looks it had.

I pulled out the fourth Pokéball on my belt and scorned it. "Why didn't I think of you before?" I put it back and walked miserably into the darkening woods. Finding a collared Pidove in the middle of the night was going to be a very fun task.

I tried to think optimistically, which wasn't my usual way of thinking. _Come on, Utopia, you can find a little birdie in a two mile radius in the dark!_ Yeah, who was I kidding? I thought to look back where Skyla was standing to see if the serious gym leader (who seemed to be threatening) stood. She was standing around, talking with her faithful underlings. I felt a pang of envy. They were worthy of addressing a Gym Leader. Sure, any traveling trainer can talk to and challenge a gym leader, but when you wanted to work **for them** they had to be like Rayquaza (Yeah, I know a few Pokémon outside of Unova, but not a whole lot…) as in looming over you and forcing you to fall to your knees and blabber "I'm not worthy".

I cleared the runway and plunged into the forest. I didn't see any Pidoves, collared or not, so I took out my four Pokémon to talk with them. Since I raised the Larvesta and Tympole from eggs, I felt that I could understand them to an extent. I held out the four Pokéballs (yeah, the cheapest kind I could find) and called out their names. Four Pokéballs opened and four Pokémon formed out of the red light.

Len the Palpitoad jumped up and down and wiggled the three bumps on his head, sending little waves off sound. He was a pleasant Pokémon, one of my favorites. I know that I shouldn't have favorites, but he just is. "Pal!" he greeted me. (Isn't that so cute? He calls me 'pal'!)

Sundazzle the Larvesta came out in the forest floor in front of me and closed her eyes in a little sinister giggle. She was evil, and I knew it. She really liked to annoy others and their Pokémon. I wanted to blame her personality for that; it didn't have anything to do with **my** parenting! She was a Pokémon that didn't talk much, but meant a lot.

My accidental catch Stunfisk actually was pretty handy. He had shocked my Vullaby and made it easier to catch her back around Victory Road. Again, I stumbled on him while wandering around Icirrus, got shocked, and decided to punish him by catching him. I had planned on releasing him (especially since he had the creepiest smile), but I figured having an electric-type would balance out my team. I named him Ole (Pronunciation: O-Lay!) because the upside-down exclamation mark was used in a language called Spanish and_¡__Ole!_ was a Spanish exclamation. I know I'm so creative! 

My last and newest Pokémon was a baby vulture type Pokémon. Other people say that Vullabies are emos or goths and kind of creepy. After all, they do pick on weaker Pokémon and have a skull as a diaper! But I really liked her. She was surprisingly hardy and could take a hit despite her hollow bones. She has a little hint of a temper, but I prefer her to Sundazzle. When she grows into a Mandibuzz, we'll have a great time flying around the region! I haven't named her yet, so I decided to make one up fast. I'll call her Pebbles because of a TV show I liked (the one with a young character that has a bone in her hair).

But enough about them, I had to depend on my Pokémon to catch and not fatally wound a Pidove. "Ok, Pokés!" I said happily, calling them Pokémon in a short and cute way (it's cute to me). "We've got a Pidove to catch. Ole, I need your electricity to stun it." the fish-like Pokémon grinned and sent a bit of electricity through the air. I shuddered at the smile; it had a quality that made you want to run to your mommy… I continued in my speech to me Pokémon, "Pebbles –yes, you the Vullaby, that's your name now-, you will start flying around and see if you can find some of those buggers from the air. You like picking on weaker Pokémon, right?"

The little gothic Vullaby seemed to be at a complete loss at what I was saying. I'd figure I'd explain it to her later. I continued in a heroic voice, "Len and Sundazzle will go back into their Pokéballs unless I get into trouble, which is very possible."

The blue vibration Pokémon looked sad and muttered, "Toad-toad…"

"I still love you, it's just I can't watch all four of you-" I left off and looked where Sundazzle was. _Landorus!_ I let her wander off again! "Landorus!" I shouted and returned Ole and Len to their cheap-o Pokéballs. I picked up the vulture Pokémon and raced into the forest. I wanted Pebbles to get used to me and human speech so we could be good partners. The baby vulture cooed and settled down in my arms, treating me like a nest. I was really glad I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, or else my arms would have faced the full fury of her claws.

I ran through the darkening forest, looking for a white smudge in the gloom. Maybe I would find a path of signed Pokémon as well, it had happened before. What was with that creature? "Sundazzle, come back here!" I yelled through the forest. As a result, a few Pidoves and Tranquills took flight from their perches. I cursed myself yet again. This was not my day!

I paused and waited to see if I would hear a deep and fiery voice saying "Larvesta", but she rarely talked, so that didn't work. What did work, however, was that I could see fire a lot easier at night. I stopped running and scanned the trees for flashes of orange fire.

"Darn you, stupid bug!" I heard some enraged male voice yelling.

That was pretty much a dead giveaway. I ran towards the sound and found my imp trying to torch Tim the emo man's shirt once more. Obviously she didn't like the design.

I wanted to laugh at the black-haired guy again, but then a saw that he had a colorful yellow, red and blue bird attacking my Larvesta. I had no clue what that Pokémon was, I'd never seen in wandering around before. _Where'd Timmy-man find one?_ I ran forward and returned the Larvesta back into her Pokéball.

Tim glared at me so hard it could have pierced (and exploded) concrete. "So, trying to distract me from finding the Pidove? I'll show you!"

"I'm not…!" I protested quickly, and then found his primary-color bird lunged at me. Pebbles jumped out my arms and disappeared in the shadows. Then she lumped out behind the strange bird and hit it on the back of the head.

The bird must've been rock-type or something, because the faint-attack didn't do very much. The creature snapped, "ARCHEN!" and hit my Vullaby with its feathered wing. Another thing about it, I don't think that bird-like thing could fly. Vullaby could flutter around, but this thing looked too heavy for flight. It certainly looked like it wanted to fly.

"Hey, stop it right now, I want to find a Pidove, not fight you!" I yelled and tried to separate my little vulture from the ancient bird-like Pokémon.

Emo the Tim (don't laugh at my nicknames for people!) crossed his arms over his shirt and continued to murder me with glares of pure loathing. "I don't care what you say; I'll send you back to the Pokémon center to give me some more time."

Oh, so he was a strategic player, he was already thinking of taking out competition. If I didn't hate him so much, I'd give him a little credit for playing cleverly. "Whatever!" I changed my stance and let my Vullaby fight with all of her might. "I can take you on! Pebbles, flatter that thing!" most courageous trainers would say "Go and use your strongest attack, SUPER-AWESOME DARK AND FLYING-TYPE MOVES COMBINED TO MAKE THE OPPONENT FAINT IN ONE TURN!" but no, I liked to confuse an opponent first at the risk of higher stats. If I ever got my hands on the move Attract, I'd teach it to every one of my Pokémon just because it makes the opponent Pokémon pretty much melt in infatuation.

Pebbles chirped something sweetly to the bird Pokémon and the yellow Pokémon seemed proud, yet confused.

"Archen, use Ancient Power!" Timmy-Tim commanded with a funny crack in his voice.

I wanted to laugh, but Ancient Power was terribly effective if it hit. "Pebbles, run away from that attack for your life!" However, my Pokémon thought that she could withstand a hit and didn't move.

The Pokémon called Archen seemed clear-headed enough to attack. He summoned up huge boulders from the ground, ripping apart the ground violently. He then cast the boulders at my sweet baby vulture Pokémon.

Pebbles finally got it in her head that rock equaled owies. She flapped her little wings and tried to dodge. She gave it her very best, but one of the boulders still found its way to her little chest. She chirped weakly and fell under the weight of the rock. I returned the little Pokémon in a flash of red and glared at Tim.

"What are you waiting for? Get out your next Pokémon!" he instructed darkly.

I didn't like this guy one bit. "Look, emo-dude, I want a bird, not a fight!" I suddenly realized I called him one of my nicknames and mentally face-palmed. Yeah, sometimes my nick-names were only meant to be heard by me.

Tim continued to glare, not budging in his resolve. He gave me what I was looking for; though not the same sort of 'bird' I wanted… yeah, let's just say he made a hand gesture that was meant to be offensive. "You've got 24 hours still to get one, I'd say you have time." he sneered. "Archen, use acrobatics."

I gulped and quickly decided that I was going to run. I turned tail and fled for my life through the gloomy forests of Mistralton.


	5. How Did You Catch a Pidove Again?

Let me tell you a little about Pokémon battles. Here in Unova, there are two types of battles; one where you fight a wild Pokémon and the other is when you fight a different trainer's Pokémon. The wild battle you can fight them until they flee, faint, or you can even run away. When I was looking for Pebbles, I found many Bouffalant. After a look at the afro, yellow eyes, and gold-ringed horns, I ran for my life. Pokémon -if angry enough- might pursue you, but most of them are fine if you leave them in peace.

Now let's look at trainer battles. Ever heard of running away from a trainer battle? No? I was now figuring out **why**. Evidently, if an emo-man named Tim tells his ancient bird Pokémon to use an evil move called acrobatics on something when there is no Pokémon target, a trained Pokémon will go after the human. Inhumane? I'd believe so.

I ran through the woods, fleeing the emo boy I had ticked off twice in a row. However, the ancient bird Pokémon wasn't going to let me leave. It ran after me, seeing as if couldn't fly. Once it was within range of me, it leapt up into the air and speed at me so fast I couldn't see if coming. It crashed into me and bit at my arms with its toothed beak.

I tried not to yell in pain so that emo-man could find me and force me to duel. This was a scavenger hunt for Landorus' sake! Not a kill or be killed game! But, the Archen continued to scratch and bite me, so I cried out.

Just like that, my faithful little Palpitoad Len jumped to my rescue in a flash of light. Without wasting any time, he defended me (sort of) my sending out a stream of bubbles from his mouth. The bubbles flew at the bird/rock Pokémon on me and smashed him. Yeah, bubbles hurt, kids. I got a little taste of the bubble attack myself since the angry Pokémon using acrobatics on my arm. I grimaced, but I couldn't bear letting Len know he hurt me. One time he did hurt me and he cried for a while, like seriously.

The Archen jumped off of my arm and faced the Palpitoad. Since its trainer was far off still, it used acrobatics again, crashing into my Palpitoad and scratching at him. It wasn't the prettiest sight to see Len's skin break and tiny lines of blood ran down from the wounds.

My Pokémon countered with an attack called Muddy Water. As you could tell from the name, it was a tidal wave of brown water. The wave washed over the Archen, rendering it near the point of fainting. The last thing I wanted to do was give Tim another reason to hate me, so I decided to run again. "Good job, Len," I called and returned him to the Pokéball. If I wanted to run fast, he wasn't a good Pokémon to keep up with my pace.

This time the Archen didn't give chase. I made myself scarce quickly, running blindly into the forest area. This forest was bigger than I thought at first; it was easy to get lost in. Now it seemed to be pressing in on me, gloomy and bloodthirsty. I could almost feel Pokémon of the night eyeing me, thinking a wounded human would make a nice snack. I'm not all that big, so I'd only be considered a snack.

I slowed a little, hoping by now Timmy-Tim wouldn't be able to track me down. What I wouldn't give for a friendly person or Pokémon! I grumbled to myself and tried to look through the darkness. It was pretty useless though, the purple sky didn't offer much illumination. My best hope was either to set up camp and start a fire, or sleep in a tree. I examined my arm and grimaced at the blood and tears in my nice blue long-sleeved shirt. I bought this thing in Icirrus for cold temperatures, that wasn't going to help now.

I grumbled and set my huge backpack down on the ground and searched for some of my Band-Aids and disinfectant for my smarting arm. If I was lucky, I'd only get a tetanus shot! I grumbled and wiped the stinging ointment on my arm, then wiped it with a rag, coloring it a little red. I put on four Band-Aids to cover up the scratches. Satisfied that I would be pretty safe from infections and rabies, I called out Len to take care of him.

The Palpitoad emerged from the Pokéball, already defensive. "Pal! Palpi!" he called out in alarm and looked around the gloom for the enemy Pokémon.

"Shh, we got away for now." I told him, stroking the top-most bump on his head. He wagged his little tad pole tail and jumped around to face me. He only had a few cuts, and they didn't look that bad, but I still didn't want him to be in danger of a tetanus shot as well. I held out the disinfectant and rag and began to clean his little scratches. Len was part ground type, so his skin was relatively firmer than when he was just a little head with headphones and tail.

After I place the second Band-Aid on his head, I called out Pebbles to see if I could help her out. The little vulture came out of her Pokéball standing; that was a good sign. She pecked a little bit of dirt from her feathers and chirped deeply, "Vull…"

"You ok, Pebbles?" I asked and held out my hand to her.

"Bi, Vullaby aby." She cheeped and shook her feathery body, skull diaper surprisingly staying in place. I took that as an "I wasn't really hurt in the first place".

"Good, then my team looks safe." I said with a little sigh of relief. I let them stay out of their Pokéballs for a while longer while I tried to search for my sleeping bag in my huge backpack. I finally found the cylindrical shape and a pillow strapped to it and pulled it out, only to have a few Pokéchow kibble pieces fall out with it.

I sighed as Pebbles smelled the food and dove for the food. My sleeping bag would probably have kibble crumbs all over it. Great, I might have to have a sentry or something to make sure I wouldn't attract the wild Pokémon of the area… I paused and though that I could actually use this to my advantage. What if one of the Pidoves smelled the food and thought to stick around? I cackled inside my head. _I'm so smart!_

I unraveled the body-sized bag and laid it at the base of a nearby tree. I forced myself to ignore the Pokéchow odor and crawled in, then groaned. I hate the outdoors, especially when you have to pee… "I'll go in the morning." I said to myself, and then looked at my Pokémon. "Pebbles, come back," I called back the vulture Pokémon. But instead of giving my Palpitoad the same treatment, I patted the grass by my sleeping bag. "Come here, Len, you can sleep by me and defend me from mean Pokémon in the night, ok?"

The Palpitoad jumped a few times and lay on his side by me, setting off peaceful vibrations with his little round head-speakers. Another reason I loved that Pokémon, he was a good thing to listen to while sleeping. Sometimes he snored and sent off little trembles through the ground, almost resembling a boat rocking back and forth. I put my arm on his head and put my head on my pillow. With luck, I fell asleep very fast.

…

The morning found pried my eyes open with light. I groaned at the hard ground and my aching joints from the less-than comfortable night's sleep. I patted my Palpitoad, who was soundly sleeping, sending off little sound vibrations as usual.

I heard something else and slowly turned my head. _Landorus!_ I swore mentally.

All around me were a collection of Tranquills, Pidoves, whatever Patrat's evolution was… oh yeah, a Watchog. I even saw a Zebstrika sleeping while standing. _Crap! Landorus Crap!_ And even though I wanted to bait a Pidove, none of the ones that were close to me had a little collar around its neck. I turned my gaze back to my dozing Palpitoad and saw another group of Watchogs, Tranquills, and even an Audino. What was I: A freaking Princess that sang to the wild Pokémon and charmed them into helping me?

"Len, wake up, but slowly." I shook my Pokémon gently. "And then move as slowly as possible so we don't get a herd of aggressive Pokémon attacking at once."

Len is a morning Pokémon. Sometimes he can be way too cheerful in the morning. In this case, that was a bad thing. He jumped to his two feet, waving his finned tail, and send off sound vibrations by wiggling his head. Most of the Pokémon woke up to that.

I curled up in my sleeping bag and hoped that I wouldn't be noticed. It was then that I realized that my sleeping bag had been licked clean (and even chewed in places) and smelled of Pokémon breath. I coughed and held my nose. _Please leave me alone,_ I thought to the group of wild Pokémon around me.

The Zebstrika lifted its head and spotted my cheerful Palpitoad. It snorted and trotted off, not wanting to be around a ground-type Pokémon. Many of the Tranquills and Pidoves took to the air when I curled up into my sleeping bag. The Watchogs scampered to their feet, scanning the area with their multi-colored eyes.

The Audino woke up and padded over to me, directly engaging me and Len. I hadn't really ever fought one of these healing Pokémon before. They were rumored to jump out of violently shaking grass patches, but every time I got close to one, a different Pokémon would stealth attack me and the shaking patch disappeared.

I stared into its blue eyes and wished that it would go away instead of coming closer. That might get the Watchogs to join in the creeping… the pink and white Audino cooed, "Dino Audino…" and reached out her feeler thingies from her ears. They both touched my head and I felt so utterly nervous. I liked Nurse Audinos well enough, but I didn't know if wild ones were violent or not. I stayed very still.

"Aud, Audino…" it said again. Then it waved its hands cutely.

I didn't know what to do. "Ok…" I said, and then remembered that I had to use a restroom soon. I was going to find a restroom, not go out in the woods like a Pokémon. Besides, there were twenty trainers in this forest, mostly guys at that too! "Um, thanks for the interpretive dance and all, but I've got to go."

I slowly stood up, scattering the rest of the wild Pokémon. I'm thinking that they thought I was some sort of huge Sewaddle or Leavanny and the sight of a human emerging from a cocoon was bizarre. The Audino still stayed, smiling up at me, waving and clapping its hands together.

"Bye," I said hastily while stuffing my sleeping bag (gross thing) back into my backpack. I felt sticky in the clothes I wore yesterday. How did I survive my Pokémon journey if I needed a shower and real toilets? I stayed in a Pokémon center, if not a nice family's house during the nights, that was my secret. I checked to see if I got everything and returned the happy Len back to his Pokéball.

I turned around and pulled out my town map while dancing slightly. Just a regular town map? Oh-ho no! It was a nice little portable GPS that was called "Town Map". I loved this thing so much. My parents got it for me if I ever needed to find my way back to Nimbassa for the subway ride home. I found the Mistralton Pokémon Center not too far away. I heaved the Bag on my shoulders and began to run towards the little icon pictured in the GPS.

The Audino continued to follow me, using what I could only guess to be the attack Helping Hand. "Go away, I don't want to catch a Pokémon, I want to pee…" I complained. The pink and white rabbit-like Pokémon continued to follow me, giving me her helping hand.

I grumbled and turned around quickly. Without really thinking about it, I punted the little Pokémon back into the forest. I could have sworn I grew a level!

I felt sorry for kicking a sweet Pokémon a little after I did it, but I ran for the Pokémon Center without any hesitation.

…

I found the Center, did my business, even showered up a little, changed clothes, and in an hour, I was ready to go. However, I got the munchies and I stayed for an extra forty-five minutes eating with my Pokémon in the buffet. After I had wasted enough time, I gathered up my Pokémon and ran out of the building as fast as I could. I still had a Pidove to catch or else Skyla wouldn't give me a chance at being her underling. Or did she really say that? I just had to capture one and bring it back. If I didn't did that mean that I failed?

Since I was in the area, I figured that there was no harm in peeking over at the landing strip to see if anyone was holding a Pidove triumphantly. There they were: three people were already done. I could tell because 1) there were three Pidoves in the cage, 2) they were reclining on beach chairs under umbrellas on the warm asphalt. I felt like a wok falling from the sky had hit my head. Sure enough, Malcolm the famous dude was reclining, along with a black guy (I'm not racist, he's got dark skin!) and a different white guy.

I felt envy creep over me and I thought to keep their faces in my head to try to trip them up in the next round… there I went again, thinking the emo-Tim way again. No, I was going to play fairly now!

I turned heel and stomped away back into the forest. After a little mental dialogue between myself and the evils of unfairness, I stumbled on another trainer. I eeped in my mind at the weird thing I was seeing.

There sat robotic Jamie, sitting with her legs tucked under her, on a square blanket that was covered in kitten patterns. Her three Pokémon sat in a circle with her, all sipping tea elegantly. In the middle of this ritual stood a birdbath. I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't getting illusions from the café food I ate.

No, Jamie was having a tea party with her Pokémon in the middle of the forest! A TEA PARTY! I glanced at her Pokémon and strangely I didn't find an extraterrestrial Pokémon in her group. I was still surprised though. A Ducklett, a Woobat, and a Pawniard sat with her (or in the Woobat's case, 'flapped'). A Pawniard? Those things were the last thing I would imagine a sweet-looking robot girl to have. I mean, you couldn't give it a hug unless you wanted its belly spikes gutting you.

"Hello," Jamie said pleasantly, as if this was a normal thing and I was completely over-reacting. "Have you found a Pidove yet?" her wide eyes seemed devoid of a pupil, of emotion.

I backed away from the tea party and said, "No, I'll be going now…" as I turned around, I jumped in surprise and utter joy. There one was, a Pidove with a shiny blue collar! I ran toward it before the robotic girl could respond. _Ha, ha! I'll get one before she can stand up from her little tea party!_

I called out the Stunfisk and demanded that he shock it into paralysis. Ole smirked and happily sent shocks of electricity through the air.

But it wasn't going to be that easy. The Pidove looked up from the ground and fluttered away. It literally flew up into the sky, leaving me empty-handed. "WHHHAAAATTT?" I gaped. Pokémon, when in a battle setting, were supposed to fight back. What the crap was wrong with that one? It should have fought. It's not supposed to flee!

"You won't ever catch a Pidove if you go on like that…" the tea-drinking girl said calmly and patted her Ducklett for reference. She didn't say anything else helpful; she just sipped tea and patted the water bird.

"But that's how you catch Pokémon!" I protested and snagged up my smirking fish Pokémon. Bad idea: when he's smirking, never touch a Stunfisk. I yelled as I got shocked by my own Pokémon. "Ole!" I growled at him.

Jamie seemed to find this very amusing. In other words, she forced a small smile. The blonde girl with pink streaks watched me return my electric Pokémon with her unmoving stare.

I decided to get away from her and further embarrassment and ran off to where I thought the Pidove was flying off to. I glanced back and tripped over a tree root from shock and envy.

I pretty much saw a collared Pidove fly down to the Tea Party and splash around in the bird bath in the middle of the party. Jamie grabbed its wings and subdued it with a length of string hidden up her sleeve. Evidently, she knew that Pidoves liked tea and bird baths and somehow caught one without a battle… _Landorus, I feel stupid…_

I got up from the ground and acted like I meant to do that. I knew that a few pieces of grass were in my hair, but it didn't matter. If tea and water were somehow ways to lure a grey bird in, maybe I had to try an unorthodox way to get this done as well. Ok, I'm going to break out in a polka song! I'm kidding.


	6. Gregor is a wierd name

**Gah, it's taken forever to get past homework to write something. But at least I can put this up. :) ~Zangoose-Kira**

Ok, so I was now going to catch a Pidove before sunset no matter what I had to do! Here we go, Utopia Fletcher determined to get a stupid little grey bird with a collar. Obviously, I had to think of a better plan than engage it in a typical battle. They already proved to be more of the fleeing type Pokémon. Somehow Jamie the robot girl knew to have a peaceful Pokémon tea party and bird bath and lure one in that way.

I thought my Pokéchow on my sleeping bag was a good idea but it had failed, and as a result I pretty much drop-kicked the sweetest Pokémon of the Unova region. Yeah, I felt really sucky. The more time I wasted on feeling sorry for myself, the less time I had to formulate an idea to lure a bird Pokémon within my grasp.

_Wait!_ I smiled widely in realization. _This is a test to see if you really know about birds. This is a bird gym after all! This test is to see if you can study a bird, and predict its actions in the wild. It's like advanced bird watching for the Pokémon gyms. _Why didn't I think of it like that before?

I tramped into the forest and called out Pebbles, my little Vullaby. The baby vulture Pokémon surveyed its surroundings and cheeped in her deep voice to say the place was satisfactory. If I was going to learn anything about Pidoves, I'd be able to learn it from my own bird Pokémon. "Hey, Pebbles." I grinned slightly reminiscent of times when I asked my parents for cash.

The bird squawked and flapped her wings, waiting for orders.

"If you were a bird, where would you want to be?" I face-palmed and corrected myself, "Sorry, I know you are a bird… I meant, if you could be anywhere within two miles of Skyla's gym, where would you be?"

My Pokémon surprisingly understood what I was asking. She flapped her tiny wings and began to flutter through the air towards what I hoped to be a haven of collared Pidoves. After following her for a few minutes, I stumbled on a serene little pond. Strange, I didn't remember that on the map. On the placid little pond were a few Swanas, Duckletts, and a smattering of Pidoves. Along with these birds were Shelmets, Karablasts, Tympoles, Palpitoads, Zebstrikas, Watchogs, and two Audinos.

I was once again surrounded by Pokémon and I didn't know if they would all gang up on me. Sometimes you could never tell the difference from a crazy, battle-hardy Pokémon from a calm I-will-ignore-you Pokémon.

Pebbles surveyed the landscape and found that she didn't like it. She flapped off, almost leaving me staring at the Pokémon in this undisturbed habitat. Sometimes I think that the old Team Plasma had a few logical points in saying that Pokémon needed to be free. I mean, just looking at the scene was enough to get me in a slight epiphany of sorts. I told myself that if I really believed that, I'd have to let my Pokémon go out into the wild. I don't know if I could do that. I mean, weren't domesticated Pokémon hard to send back to the wild? I did raise my naughty Larvesta and sweet Palpitoad from eggs, what did they know about surviving on their own?

I snapped out of my thoughts and spotted my little vulture flapping through the air to the north. Ok, fine, I didn't know if it was north by the direction of the sun or moss, I pulled out the Town map for that. I followed the little dark bird while making sure that I wouldn't tick off any wild Pokémon by stumbling over them.

Pebbles the Vullaby finally found a happy place in a tree. I stood next to the trunk and scowled at her. _Why of all the trees to pick did she like that one?_ It didn't have any lower branches that I could use to climb up. I wanted to pull out some fancy climbing equipment to conquer the tree just because it made me ticked, but I didn't think to pack a grappling hook or throwing daggers to use as hand-holds in the bark. _Whoops, I guess I left those in my __other____pack._ I thought sarcastically.

"Pebbles, do you see any Pidoves?" I asked, trying not to sound stressed.

"Vull! Vullaby!" she chirped at me. She jumped from her perch and landed at my feet. Was it just me or was she giving me a critical look? "Bee-bee! Vulla vullaby." She squawked.

"I'm sorry, I still can't speak 'bird'." I said in exasperation. "Or much Pokéspeak for that matter…"

The black bird with a skull diaper fluttered up to my face and I held up my hands. She was my newest Pokémon and I didn't trust her as much as I could Len the Palpitoad. "Bee…" she chirped and flew off in another direction.

The best guess I could come up with was that I had asked the wrong question to her. Oh well.

I followed my Pokémon back to the hidden lake and –slightly out of breath—I waited to see what she would do. She sat down and stared at the Pokémon. I copied her. Then, I felt like leaping for joy. _Oh Pebbles! _I wanted to cry out. On the lake were two Pidoves that had collars. **Collars!** I loved my Vullaby a lot now!

Now the only problem was getting one of these nice little birdies into my grasp without scaring them away. Should I tempt them with worms? Should I tell Len to jump into the water and 'sick 'em'? Or maybe I could have Ole shock the life out of them before they could take to the air… I wished now that I had known a little more about bird Pokémon before this. Sure I read a few books almost all the way through… but nothing I read seemed to apply to now.

"Pebbles, can you talk them into…" I paused and smiled. Sometimes I could be brilliant without trying! "Pebbles my lovely Vullaby…" I started.

She didn't like that and pecked at me. I keep on forgetting that she's dark-type and a little grimmer than a normal Pokémon.

"Sorry, gothie…" I murmured. I came up with a better approach. "Look, I want to capture one of those Pidoves quietly, so could you persuade them to come over here for a nice helping of Poké chow?"

The vulture Pokémon simply stared at me with a critical stare. She had understood my plan but obviously didn't think highly of it.

I sighed and pulled out the mental Pokédex to figure out why that was a bad idea. One, Pidoves were stupid, skittish creatures and two, Vullabies were the "pursue the weak Pokémon" kind of creature. It would be like facing a friendly Kyurem! "Ok, Sundazzle won't help, unless she wants to act as live bait… Len could sneak-attack them from the water, but they'd just fly away… Ole could shock them…" Ok, now my flash of brilliance was feeling like a brain fart. "If only I could figure this out and act smart about it!" I grumbled to myself.

I had no other choice. I returned my vulture and took out the creepy-smile Pokémon that looked like a fish. "Ole," I paused and thought of shouting his name like an exclamation, but held off. "Ole," I repeated and the fish smiled at me. _Oh the creepiness…_ "I need you to shock a Pidove… scratch that, make it the whole lake. I just need a Pidove paralyzed."

"Stunfisk…" the brown fish said slowly. I seriously wonder if I should keep training a creeper Pokémon. I mean, Len's already part ground-type… but no, I need an electric type to make up for the lack of a Pokémon to fight a water-type Pokémon. Ole looked out over the lake and began charging up power, slowly smiling.

Just when Ole was about to stun every Pokémon on the lake, a Pokémon ran up to the Stunfisk and scratched it. It was a Purrloin, a stinking little sneaky cat Pokémon. The purple cat got a taste of Ole's shock and its fur puffed out. Surprisingly, it didn't yowl and scare all of the Pokémon. It growled to itself and hissed quietly at the Stunfisk.

"Purr… purloin loin." It barely whispered out. It looked at the lake back to where the two Pidoves were. Why did I get the feeling that this Purrloin was a trainer's?

"Stun…" Ole pouted. At least he wasn't smiling that creeper smile…

"What is it?" I whispered to the cat.

The purple devious Pokémon shook its fur and began grooming in haste. After a second of this, it glared up at me and hissed quietly.

"I want to know why you were ruining my plan. Look, I want a collared Pidove so I can pass this test by Skyla, ok? If you are a trainer's Pokémon, I should warn you that I will fight for that collared Pidove…" I stopped myself and remembered that there were **two **Pidoves on the lake. Maybe I could share with whoever this other trainer was. I hoped against Landorus that this Purrloin didn't belong to Tim the Timmy-emo-man.

"Purr…" the cat said in an undertone and pointed a little paw at Ole.

I guessed it didn't want Ole out and shocking people when he felt like smiling. I didn't believe I listened to the cat, but I did. I called back the Stunfisk as quietly as I could.

"Nyan…" the cat meowed cutely once the Stunfisk was back in the confines of the Pokéball. "Purrloin loin—oin purr…" it padded forward and sniffed me.

"I'm sorry, do you want some Pokéchow for your trouble?" I reached in my pack, but it didn't move when I pulled out a handful of food. I sighed and bent forward. "Fine, do you want me to give it to you?" I continued to keep my voice low. I kept glancing to the pond to make sure that the precious Pidoves were still there. Thankfully they were.

"Purr-purr! Loin purrloin." It stated and poked it nose at my standard (and bought at a yard sale) trainer belt with Pokéballs lining the edge.

"Do you want to be captured?" I asked without really believing it.

"Purr." It insisted and sniffed my Pokéballs. It snatched up a small ball in its mouth and turned around. I wanted to yell after it, but I couldn't risk scaring the Pidoves.

_Stupid fur-ball! You took my Sundazzle!_ I thought and started running after the thief. Sure, it was a trainer's Pokémon, probably a thieving trainer that made his or her living on other stupid trainers! _Landorus, I swear! I'll never get through this challenge if I can't even catch a stupid Pidove! Maybe I could try to find some worth in Burgh's gym with Sundazzle, or maybe Clay could let me train my Palpitoad and Stunfisk…_

After making as little noise as possible while following the thieving cat, I found myself sneak-attacked. Yeah, I felt super idiotic now. I had a hand clapped over my mouth and I could feel someone a little bigger than me holding me against his chest. Crap, it was a guy! I tried to struggle and get a look at him, but he shushed me.

"After those birds are captured, you can ask questions." He whispered. I shuddered, feeling the terrible thrill of being powerless. The hand around my mouth loosened a little and the guy said, "Do you have a bug-type Pokémon?"

I nodded and pointed to the Pokéball in his cat's mouth. I could guess that he was in the hunt after his comment on capturing the birds.

He sounded relieved and released me with a word of caution, "Don't talk, ok?"

I turned around and got a good look at him before trying to team up with the owner of a thieving Purrloin. He was a scrawny, slightly nerdy-looking person at first glance. He had square-rimmed glasses and a shirt showing some retro videogame character. Surprisingly, he didn't have matching braces. I didn't recognize him from before, but I was a little ok with that. At least it wasn't Tim.

I stopped myself from introducing myself and went back to his cat to get my naughty bug. The cat gave it to me and I held out the sphere, mouthing "What do you want me to do?"

He pointed to a solid tree branch hanging out over the pond a little. "Bait up there." He whispered back. I noticed that his ears seemed to be slightly glued to his head, as if they almost didn't exist. His nose was very triangular, as if a 60° triangle was on his face.

I nodded and climbed up the tree without checking back to how he was going to help. I called out my Larvesta on the scratchy bark and poised myself to catch her if she decided that the branch was no longer fun to be on. When she came out, she called out very loudly (almost making me jump bad enough to fall into the water below). The guy behind me jumped a little, but kept quiet.

I wondered if that call was going to make the Pidoves fly away, however, I could swear they liked the call. The two birds paddled through the water to get a closer to the bug in distress.

Sundazzle surprised me by sending out a string shot and descending closer to the water simply to taunt the Pidoves into a fight. I thought she was going way too far now, but she was somehow being good bait. Who knew that being so hard-headed could be actually good!

"LAR!" the fire bug taunted and wiggled a little on the string that held her above the water.

"Dove…" one of the coveted birds cheeped and flapped its wings a little, as if considering flying up and eating a delicious and loud snack. They were both nearly within the reach of the tree branch.

_Whatever your plan is Mr. Sneak-attack nerd, I'd love to see it in action soon…_ I thought impatiently.

And just like that, he called a Pokémon to get them. A Throh, hidden previously by a shrub, quickly wrapped its hulking arms around the two birds, one in each arm. The red fighting-type Pokémon grimaced at the enraged birds began to thrash and peck at his arms.

"Quickly, get a cloth!" Now hero-nerd in my book of nicknames, called out loudly and whipped out his own cloth. I was about to ask why, but he showed me. He splashed up to his Pokémon and wrapped the cloth around the Pidove's head. The bird instantly ceased struggling and came quietly.

I rummaged in my pack for something and came up with my dirty shirt from a few days ago. I splashed down to the pond, sending up water droplets at my Larvesta, and threw my dirty t-shirt over the bird's head. It too fell complacent. I made sure the wrapping around its head wouldn't fall off before checking on my Pokémon. Sundazzle had lost her bravery at the sound of water and was shivering in the branch.

I smiled and held the Pidove close to my chest. I could feel its feathers, its cold, wet claws on my hands, and its little heart pounding against its tiny ribcage. At last! I was going to pass the first challenge!

I turned to the hero-nerd and saw him tuck his prize under his arm and inspecting his fighting-type Pokémon for scratches. I suddenly felt really indebted to him. I mean, somehow his plan worked out really well. I smiled and laughed in elation, "I can't believe it! We caught them!"

He smiled and returned his Throh with a whoosh of a Pokéball. "You bet!" his smile brought out round, healthy dimples and he looked as energized as I felt. "It was helpful to have a Throh with the attack bind, but I needed a way to lure them in. I saw a person tramping through here earlier and sent Purrloin after them. I guess Landorus was smiling on me today, huh?"

_Wow, he sounded really smart._ But then again, what was the nerd look for other than looking and acting smart? "I guess." I responded and fumbled to call back my Larvesta before she could taunt more Pokémon into fighting. She went back and I was at ease.

The hero-nerd waded back to the shore, soaked all the way up his pants. He held the Pidove with care and once he was on shore, his Purrloin was at his legs. The cat saw the water and refrained from rubbing against his legs. It eyed the bird, as if waiting for the opportunity to eat it.

"I'm Gregor by the way," he finally introduced himself to me.

I fumbled with the Pidove in my hands and said in reply, "I'm Utopia Fletcher."

"Nice working with you." He smiled again. He turned to the thick forest and said, "Let's get these birds in, eh?"

I nodded and waded up the shore, as soaking as he was. Oh well, pants can dry, right? I wanted to meet this guy. I hated meeting new people, but this guy helped me out, the least I could do in return was ask about him. "Hey, let's travel together back." I called out, and then thought, _crap, that sounded lame…_ I continued, "So, you have a Throh and a Purrloin, what flying-type do you have?"

He continued walking, but slowed his pace to let me catch up. He shrugged and said calmly, "I've got a Tranquill, it's nothing original, but he works hard." He paused and looked at his Purrloin closely. "I'm guessing you have an electric-type, right? My Purrloin looks like he got a little taste of a thunderbolt."

"Oops, sorry about that…" I mumbled. "I was figuring on paralyzing the Pidoves on the water, but your Purrloin thankfully stopped my scheme. Thanks again, I can't begin to describe how grateful I am… I mean, I saw a crazy girl rope in a Pidove by hosting a tea party, I thought I was done-for." I blabbered. Yeah, I still need to work on social skills and not acting like an idiot.

"What's your team?" he asked.

"Oh, I have a Larvesta, a Stunfisk, a Palpitoad, and a Vullaby." I counted off on my hands mentally. Believe it or not I sometimes forgot which Pokémon I had on me. Sad, I know… The Pidove on my hand twitched as if trying to escape or poop. I quickly turned its butt over the side of my grip so that if it did poop, it would land on the ground.

"You've got four?" he asked, his voice rising as if completely incredulous.

"Yeah…"

"I've got six." Gregor the hero-nerd said calmly.

No wonder he was so smart…


	7. Malcolm vs Tim the Emo

Gregor and I made it out into the main part of Mistralton by the time the sun was a little past its pinnacle. He had returned his Purrloin after I felt my eyes watering and sneezes threatening to take over me. I was happy in the first place that I hadn't been sneezing my head off when we were stalking the Pidoves. Darn allergies!

It felt good to not be scrambling at the end and barely making it like those suspenseful movies. My Pidove (with a t-shirt over its head and most of its body) had pooped (wet mess), but it had ended up on the ground thankfully. I sighed with relief to see that not every one of the twenty contestants was waiting in the asphalt on this surprisingly warm day.

_Ha, ha, Tim the emo-man hasn't shown up yet! I hope he fails._ I thought angrily. After all, he did flip me a 'bird' and threaten to wound me with his little fossil bird Pokémon. _Was it even possible to have a fossil Pokémon brought back to life? Stupid emo_…

Gregor, the brown-haired hero-nerd, smiled at me and said kindly, "Hey, why are you trying to get this position?" his manner was friendly. After all, we had just jumped in a pond and gotten soaked just to get these nice little tickets to the next stage. We were still feeling elated.

I tried not to be a dork and I answered, "I can't be a Pokémon master, so I figured I could try for a gym underling, I mean trainer. Skyla is a good leader and after I saw the sign-up sheet, well, I couldn't say no." Yeah, that was all the motivation I had. No, I wanted to be the first girl trainer in the gym to prove Skyla wrong, but I didn't want to say that, not yet at least. I tried to show courtesy and asked back, "And why do you want to be here?"

The nerd tried to adjust his glasses, but couldn't with a grey Pidove in his hands. Gregor simply said, "I love the cannons in the gym. My Tranquill and I will have a lot of fun on that, I just know it."

_Great, now I sounded like a selfish brat compared to him._ But, that was the way of Utopia Fletcher: awkwardness… "Cool," I said as we reached the others basking like they didn't have a care in the world.

There were about eleven people waiting for the rest of us. If my math was correct, that left seven trainers and seven Pidoves left in the area. I was in the bottom half, but as long as I made it, I was happy. Most of the guys were sunbathing with their shirts off. I groaned and averted my eyes. Again, I hate shirtless guys.

I saw the cage to put the Pidoves in and a sprinted to it, keeping a firm hold to the bird. I stooped to the cage and put the little bird in. I took off its blindfold at the last second and I closed the door before it could flap away and let my whole nightmare start again. It stayed in the cage thankfully. I sighed, finally taking in the completion of the task. These two weeks were going to be rough, I just could tell…

Gregor came behind me and put his Pidove in the cage in a similar fashion that I had. We grinned after the deed was done and the two pond-swimming birds were safe inside a cage.

"We did it!" I said a little more enthusiastically than intended. As a result, I heard a snigger from one of the guy groups. _Sure, laugh it up!_ I thought sourly.

"I'll see you later," hero-nerd man stood up and headed for the Pokémon Center.

It was then I wondered if Skyla was going to be waiting and checking off who was present and had a bird to their name. What if some scumbag like Tim just sat on the landing strip and said, "Sure, I got a Pidove." No, a Gym Leader had to be smarter than that…

I went through the group of half-naked guys (red-head Malcolm along with them) and picked a spot in partial shade. I wanted to lay out in the sun, but only my legs. My skin burned badly if I simply lay around. I laid half in the shade of a tree and half in the sunlight on the asphalt. I was a little distance from the others, safe enough that I could barely make out conversations if I wanted, but not too close that someone would feel inclined to include me in anything.

I set my backpack as a pillow and began to drift off. Sleep sure felt good…

There's something about shade, it moves. After a half-hour of dozing the shade had left my waist and had crawled to my ankles, leaving me with half-dried jeans in the shade. I felt myself shiver at the damp fabric and suddenly I was awake. I sat up and rubbed my eyes.

"Hello."

I jumped. There she was again, the robot girl that had a tea party to catch a Pidove… I looked beside me and saw Jamie sitting with a teacup in her hands, her Pawniard holding a smaller teacup with its claws. She was sitting on her tea party rug (with cat Pokémon from all five regions as a pattern) and staring at me with those weird robot eyes… I still couldn't get over the fact that she was a blonde that had pink streaks in her hair. **Pink **for crying out loud! She still looked on the outside like a frail little girl, but by now I knew a little better. To me she was robot crazy tea girl.

"Hi…" I said, letting nervousness trickle out in my voice. _What did the robot want?_

"How'd you get your bird?" she asked casually and sipped her tea. Was it just me or did she barely speak at all? The longest sentence she had said to me was "You won't catch a Pidove that way" or something like that back in the forest.

I gulped and said slowly, "I teamed up with a guy named Gregor…" I trailed off, realizing that I didn't know his last name. Then again, the only person whose last name I knew was Malcolm Kwester. How could I forget the name that was in the papers all the time? Eugene Kwester had given me Len the Palpitoad and Sundazzle the Larvesta to me; you could say I respected that family. I didn't know anyone's last name besides Malcolm. But I didn't really care; it wasn't like I was going to look them up of PokéBook and add them as friends.

Jamie nodded and sipped her tea calmly. I still had an "Alice in Wonderland" feeling about her, as if she was kind of out of the world. "You seem popular." She said. I wondered if she was talking to me still or if she possibly was talking to her Pokémon or the Cheshire cat.

"Me? No, not really…" I said quickly. What was I? I was socially awkward with allergies to furred Pokémon, had a fear of Dragons, and my sole reason for doing this camp was to break a norm. What about me was popular? Did Malcolm's fame rub off on me?

"Two guys have helped you so far." Robot blondie said.

"But Tim hates my guts and nearly tore me to pieces in the forest, I wouldn't call that help." I snapped back. She was so aloof it felt weird to talk with her. Why was she sitting by me in the first place? I looked at her Pawniard sitting serenely with a teacup in its claws. "Where'd you get that Pawniard?" I asked nicely to change the subject. Her other Pokémon were a Ducklett and a Woobat, perfect Pokémon for this gym. Maybe she had more reason to win this than I did.

"Dewey. He's mine." She said shortly.

Great, she didn't even like to tell me about her Pokémon and her history with it. I guessed its name was Dewey. _Why do I even bother being nice and ask questions?_ I figured that she didn't talk much and wouldn't break that for the sake of talking about her precious little sharp blade Pokémon.

"Two trainers haven't returned." Jamie said, calmly changing the subject.

I snapped to attention. Last time I checked it was seven… then again, I slept for a little. I guess five trainers came back with Pidoves while the pool-jumping Utopia slept. How dare the world continue while I slept! "Did Tim make it back?" I asked with fear. I didn't like the guy and I didn't want to get anywhere near him.

"Yes." The blonde said evenly.

"Pawn." Dewey the tea-sipping Pawniard said in agreement.

I sighed and scanned the area quickly. I wanted to say "crap it all, Landorus," but held back. Making friend that you might have to step on to get to the top was one thing, but making enemies with a hostile person like Tim was another thing entirely. What if he was somehow listening in on the conversation, waiting with his Archen poised to rip at me? _Great, now I felt a little paranoid._ "Ok…" I said as coolly and aloofly as I could manage. I didn't see him with the other guys.

Jamie didn't say anything more than she had to. "Skyla is going to call off the search in an hour. After that, our next challenge will begin."

"Wait, do you know how this challenge works?" I asked her, full attention zoomed in on her and her weird Pawniard called Dewey. I still couldn't predict who this girl was. She looked cute and innocent, but she acted like a robot that spoke very little. Now was she telling me that she had already gone through this already? Had she taken up the challenge and lost the first time? If that was true, I might want to team up with her for help…

"I saw it on the schedule."

I face planted on the little Meowth, Skitty, Purrloin, and Glameow patterned quilt Jamie was sitting on. I felt really stupid now… "Oh…" I groaned as I felt my nose begin to throb from the face-planting.

"I was kidding." She said evenly.

_What? She had tried to make a joke?_ I wanted to explode in confusion at the actions of this completely insane girl! I sat up and rubbed my face. "Oh, ok…" I mumbled.

Jamie didn't explain herself, she finished her cup of tea and started packing up the tea set and quilt. Her Pawniard helped a little in putting its own teacup into a basket. It didn't touch the quilt though, as if his little claws would rip through the fabric. Jamie then stood with a blanket over one arm and a basket in her other arm. "Good luck. We are two of the four girls here. One of the girls hasn't returned, so it might be just three." She said calmly and began to walk away, her dark/steel Pokémon following her.

_So she did feel a sort of kinship with me after all! Yeah, go girl power!_ I scanned the group of idling trainers and spotted the third girl in the challenge. She had black skin and was hanging out with a group of black and white guys alike. She had thick hair and wide lips, as if always smiling. I wondered where the fourth girl in the challenge was and if she was crying by now in the forest, frustrated at being unable to catch a Pidove. That would be crap. No, that would have been me if I hadn't teamed up with Gregor.

It was evening, the sun was closer to the ground and the guys all had their shirts back on. _Thank Landorus!_ Malcolm said to the rest of the group (the group that Jamie was heading for) "Hey, let's all get a bite to eat at the Pokémon center!" Oh course Mr. Popular would be at the center of the group, being the leader that would lead them all to victory. I swore he could have had a Victini as a starter Pokémon!

The guys cheered, a low and loud cry of agreement. I realized that I too was hungry and needed another bathroom break. I stood up, brushed some dirt off my still damp jeans, and began to walk over to the group while leaving my backpack on the ground. I mean, small towns were safe, right? I hated groups, especially large groups. I always felt like I was lost in the crowd and had no say in something unless I was loud and boisterous. I had ideas, but I never came out and said them.

Even so, I joined the crowd heading for the Pokémon center. I didn't spot Gregor and I wondered where he had gone off to.

But while I was looking through the crowd, Malcolm spotted me and grinned charmingly. "Hey, Utopia!" he cheered.

Suddenly everyone was looking at me and I felt really embarrassed. I mean, again, why was I paid special attention to? Was it because I was the only sane girl? No, I couldn't judge the black chic yet; I had only **seen** her so far. "Hi…" I said modestly. What else were you supposed to do when a cousin of a famous person greeted you? I mean, we hardly knew each other.

"Great job getting a Pidove, I knew you could do it!" he beamed and walked to me through the crowd. He put his arm around my shoulders and began to walk me through the crowd to the front. I stiffened and walked slowly along with him. Great, I was being singled out. Maybe they would start targeting me. Tim certainly was!

Malcolm Kwester started to talk about his feat of capturing a ferocious Pidove on the back of his Braviary (I totally called that he would chase after it with his Braviary!) through the sky. "I didn't know what I was doing, but suddenly my Braviary was out of his Pokéball and squawked at me to get on. We flew through the air and Braviary snagged up a Pidove within ten minutes!" he proclaimed proudly. Somehow tactfulness wasn't his forte. He liked to be friendly to all people including me and was energetic, but if he wanted to win this gym leader's challenge, he had to lie low a little. That's what I wanted to go for anyways.

I smiled along with his tale as he began to talk about his team of super awesome Pokémon. Again, tact was lacking. "I told you that I took a Darumaka into my team, and he was really strong. His reckless ability didn't help very much though; he ended missing a lot and getting hurt all the time. But when he evolved, he got the ability of Sheer Force, which makes his attacks super powerful but not inflicting any additional effects, like burning after a fire punch. It's just his style. Cottonee is my only un-evolved Pokémon. I can't figure out what can make her grow!" he paused and frowned at me, searching for an answer. "Do you know Utopia?"

I was still under his arm and walking steadily towards the Pokémon center with a flock of hopeful underlings following behind. I wanted to sound smart, but I hadn't researched Cottonees in the least. "I don't…" I stammered. There went my chance at being smart in front of a group of people…

"Sunstone, idiot," came an answer from the crowd.

The adoring crowd turned in unison and the terror, Tim Emo, glared at the red-head and me. Tim continued, "After being related to Pokémon experts and heroes, I would think you would know that a Cottonee and a Petilil would grow from sunstones, Malcolm Kwester!" he said hatefully.

A black guy pushed Tim's shoulder lightly and said, "Hey, cool it, man."

Malcolm seemed unabashed on the outside. He ventured a grin and said, "Hey, I thought I called a truce. Can't you agree to that?" I was surprised at Malcolm. He was asking a weighted question! He wanted to be seen as the good guy, a mediator that everyone loved. I suddenly saw his intentions a little better in this light.

The black haired, pale skinned teen sneered, obviously trying to start a fight or hate. It was his style anyways, but I couldn't help wondering why. "I don't remember an agreement. Besides, with all your bragging I ought to knock you down a peg or two. Why don't we battle and see if your Pokémon are still worthy of being blabbered over, eh?" his dark eyes narrowed in challenge.

Malcolm looked hurt from where I stood. Someone had rejected his efforts to be friendly. He covered with a grin and said, "Hey, that sounds like a great idea. We've got time."

I couldn't believe that he was taking up the stupid challenge. Was it to protect his pride and caring nature? The area between the red-headed famous boy and the emo-man cleared and the crowd began to cheer for a fight. I ducked out from Malcolm's arm and stood on the sidelines. He smiled at me and I returned one. I didn't want to make him feel like he was failing to charm two people at once.

Tim was certainly at a disadvantage. Even though I only knew one of his Pokémon, he was going to fight with a hostile crowd. If I was guessing right, Malcolm already had a crowd of well-wishers. The emo man didn't dare show any emotion other than hate.

"Go, Archen!" he said dangerously. The multi-colored bird emerged and flapped its flightless wings. It cawed, feeding off of its trainer's negative emotions.

Malcolm seemed to decide that if Tim wasn't going to be friendly, he wasn't going to get any more empathy during this match. The red-head smiled and countered, "Let's show off our flying Pokémon, shall we?" he called out his Braviary, a large eagle Pokémon with a headdress of white feathers and long clawed legs. It cawed to rival the Archen.

I wasn't a Pokégenius, but I knew that Malcolm was at a disadvantage. Archen was part rock-type. One hit from his Ancient Power attack and it would be over for Malcolm's bird.

"Four-on-four, substitutions permitted, got it?" Tim growled, a shock of black hair covering his eyes. I wanted to say that there could have been horns under his hair. Was there really any end to his emo and annoying-ness? And why?

"No prob!" Malcolm said delightedly and called to his large bird, "Braviary, Sky Drop!"

_Landorus, these guys were going all out!_ I gulped.


	8. Dinner with Skyla

Tim and Malcolm were facing off in the middle of town, complete with sixteen fellow competitors cheering them on. It would attract attention for sure. But were they concerned about that? Nope, Malcolm had been wounded in the pride and Tim the emo… let's just say until I understand him better I'll just think of him as a trouble-maker that really needs a chill pill.

I stood to Malcolm's right along with some of the crowd of people wanting to be Skyla's newest underling. The black chic from earlier was standing by a group of guys and cheering for a fight. Her voice was booming in her own way, contrasting to the deeper calls of the boys surrounding her.

I didn't cheer; I was still appalled at Tim's rash and discourteous behavior. I wondered if the fight had started because I was somehow involved in it. I mean, when Malcolm was nice to me Tim… never mind, Tim attacked me in the woods without provocation (sort of). Malcolm the famous red-head was only being friendly and chatting and suddenly there was a fight just because Tim the emo was being a jerk.

Malcolm called out the Sky Drop attack and his Braviary swooped forward. Its large clawed legs scrabbled forward and scooped up the Archen. With that, the eagle-like Pokémon took to the sky, flapping its powerful red wings.

Tim didn't look fazed in the least. "Archen!" he yelled to be heard by his Pokémon. "Use acrobatics to get out of its grip!"

I couldn't see very well from where I was standing and the Pokémon were already far above the ground, but the steady climb of the Braviary wavered a bit. How could the Archen still hear him from that height? The Braviary called out and I saw the yellow bird falling to the ground. Somehow Tim's plan had worked.

However, Archens were too heavy to fly…

"Acrobatics again to the ground," Tim cried, showing off his amazing tactical knowledge. He was prepared; I could give him that much credit. The Archen obeyed and disappeared in its quickness. It pounced on the ground, a little shaken but not stirred.

Malcolm stared at the yellow fossil bird, accepting its skill. His Braviary began to fly back down to the ground since it had no Pokémon to throw to the ground in its grip. This seemed to play into Timmy's plan.

"Prepare an Ancient Power, Archen." The emo said confidently and a little lower so that if Malcolm wasn't listening closely, he wouldn't catch it. However, the appearance of rocks bursting out of the ground and circling around the fossil bird was enough warning to the red-head.

"Braviary, watch yourself! Tailwind!" Malcolm countered.

I suddenly realized that I was holding my breath. I let it out slowly, but I could still feel the intensity of the fight. I squinted up to see the Valiant Pokémon diving back to the ground. Clearly I wasn't near their level of fighting.

The eagle Pokémon flapped its wings as if descended, creating a powerful gust of wind to push it along at faster speeds. The Braviary continued to dive down in a straight path, seemingly ignoring the fact that Tim's Archen was waiting to smack a pretty boulder it its face. It looked like it felt, nearly invincible.

"Ancient Power now!" Tim yelled, getting involved emotionally in the fight. Again, I was surprised by that, since Tim seemed to not be the sort of person who got emotionally involved in a fight. He hadn't changed expression while fighting me… Never mind, I was a rookie compared to them.

The yellow fossil Pokémon cawed and launched the boulders at its opponent. Malcolm's Braviary saw the boulders coming and twirled out of the way. However, it seemed so caught up in the moment that it forgot its own speed. The Braviary suddenly lost its balance and flapped awkwardly to straighten itself.

It the moment Braviary had gotten reckless, Archen had sent out a collection of boulders flying up into the empty air. _At least the rocks wouldn't hit a passerby,_ I thought. The Archen seemed to sense Tim's unexpected emotion and turned on the bigger bird with a fury. Without warning, it jumped up and used a move called Pluck on the now close bird.

Pluck was usually a move that allowed a Pokémon to eat its opponent's held berry, but instead the Archen started tearing off feathers from the red and black bird. The Braviary screeched angrily and kicked its long legs to dislodge it.

"Braviary, crush claw it!" Malcolm called out in a slight panic.

Once again I shuddered at the brute strength this Braviary held.

The red and navy blue bird screeched and tried to dislodge the cretin while aiming to crunch it in its talons. "Brav!" it screeched angrily and finally kicked the fossil bird free. It wheeled on the other Pokémon, fueled by a sort of instinctive defense.

Braviary caught the Archen in its claws and applied pressure to it. Once again the dual type of rock saved the Archen's life. The fossil bird screeched under the crushing claws, but nothing was seemingly broken, not even a wing.

Braviary threw the yellow Pokémon to the ground with an angry caw.

The Archen landed in an awkward heap, certainly nearing its collapsing point. It growled weakly in an attempt to look fearsome.

The group of underlings clapped and cheered for the famous red-head and his wickedly strong Pokémon. After they were done letting out a loud cheer, a slow clapping continued. I looked across the battle field to see who was still clapping. For some reason I thought it was Jamie being her weird self.

But no, it was quite the opposite. Out of the crowd stepped a red-head dressed in blue. The battle stopped as the Gym Leader herself went up to the two birds and clapped to both of them.

My mouth fell open. What the heck was** Skyla** doing here of all places? Wasn't she supposed to only be 'reachable' after the first week of training? What possessed her to see a little showdown in front of the Pokémon center?

Skyla bent down and crouched on her knees to pet the little Archen. She smiled and addressed Tim, "You own this bird?"

Tim, who was about as stunned as I, nodded. I wanted to tease him mentally for being not-so-cool, but I was still too confused to be in that mood.

"I've never seen an Archen in person before. It fought well for being a grounded Pokémon." Skyla said kindly. She was so much different now. She had given us a scary speech about our new living-heck lives, but now she was acting like a mother looking at a cute kid. I guess she wasn't always evil and serious. The Gym leader pointed to the Achen and asked, "Do you mind if I take a feather sample?"

"Not at all, Gym leader Skyla…" Emo man the Tim said, all of his cool, annoying tact gone from his face. Was he perhaps a hero worshiper of Skyla?

The red-headed woman smiled. She reached into a side pocket and withdrew some birdseed. She quickly pulled up a yellow feather and then placed the bird seed at the Archen's clawed feet. Tim's Archen barely felt the feather come loose and eagerly started gobbling up the birdseed with its toothed beak. Skyla stood back up and placed the yellow feather in a different pocket. She looked curious and said, "Well, aren't you hungry for dinner? Come on, let's all get a bite."

I felt inclined to face plant on the concrete from shock. Now she was acting all friendly. _Was she bipolar?_

Malcolm walked up to his brave bird and patted its head before returning it. He glanced at Tim to see if the emo was going to keep up the four-on-four deal he had agreed to, but Timmy was beside himself (and Skyla).

"Hey, what about the other two trainers?" came a call from the crowd. I could have sworn it was Gregor, but I couldn't be sure.

Skyla smiled to the group of younger trainers and said, "They both ran out of time and are getting their stuff out of the hanger. Unfortunately, they can't keep up with the training I set up. Now come on, no need to be shy." She walked up to the sliding doors of the Pokémon center and went inside.

Tim forgot all about the battle. He even nearly forgot that he hadn't returned his Archen to its Pokéball until it screeched piteously at him. He quickly returned the bird, half threw the Pokéball at the nurse, and hurried after Skyla to eat.

I had not seen** that** coming.

Malcolm shrugged at me and said, "I guess that was a tie, huh?"

I cracked a small smile. "Yeah, and it was all over a stupid sunstone…"

"It was?" Malcolm Kwester raised a red eyebrow, but then nodded, "Oh, yeah, that was it."

_Yeah right, it was because his pride had been injured_. I could tell. I mentally sighed. I had only seen **one** of Tim's Pokémon and I was hoping to get a better idea of his type and species preference, but yet again I was only left with his Archen. He had four Pokémon, if not more. _But what?_

"Hey, let's get a bite to eat with Skyla. Isn't it great that the Gym Leader thought to go to dinner with us? I mean, it's kind of an honor, you know." Malcolm said, back to his chatty self. Again, I was the center of his attention… _why?_ I stuck with the 'only sane girl' excuse.

_Oh Landorus!_ "I have to hit the restrooms, be right back!" I apologized and raced to the ground level bathrooms. The excitement of the fight had distracted me from my bodily needs for a while.

After I had answered the call of nature, I paused at the mirror while washing my hands. I hadn't looked at myself for a while and it was a little stunning.

There was Utopia Fletcher, in all of her rugged glory. I stared into my own brown (nearly black) eyes that were slightly pulled back (like Asian eyes) and medium thick eyebrows. _Crap, I needed to tweeze those buggers soon,_ I thought as I noticed a few stray eyebrow hairs poking up through my slightly tanned/yellowish skin.

I had a round head, framed by black hair that went to my neck. My bangs sat tucked behind my ears and, _oh Landorus_, I had a few leaves in my hair! I hastily plucked out the bothersome leaves and blushed to think that Malcolm had seen the leaves the whole time and hadn't said anything! _Stupid guys…_

I examined myself for a little longer, making sure that I had gotten all of the leaves and gunk out of my hair. I then left the bathroom to eat with a famous Gym Leader.

…

The buffet food was regretfully the same variety as last night. I grabbed a few Oran berries again, a smattering of chocolate pudding, and this time I indulged in some white rice and Basculin with fish oil.

I looked around to see where I could sit. I wasn't going to make the mistake of eating with Timmy-Tim-Tim again, not even if Malcolm beckoned me with some Corphish meat! Unfortunately, when I saw Malcolm, he didn't have Corphish meat._ Crap, I want Corphish meat now…_

Malcolm was sitting at a table near where Skyla sat. The table that the Gym Leader occupied was already filled with the greater fans of Skyla, including Tim the Emo. Malcolm had sweetly saved me a seat. The others at the table where a black guy I hadn't met before and a chubbier guy I hadn't met either. Were these friends of Malcolm, or just 'friends' because of Malcolm's fame?

I sat down at the all-guy table and sent Malcolm a weak smile. Yet again I couldn't understand why he was so nice.

Skyla laughed from the center of the eating area at something. She began to talk in a louder tone, either excited or addressing all of the trainees. "Hey, that's pretty awesome! I thought I trained the Pidoves to flee pretty well, but I guess that that particular one just liked to fight."

One of the guys laughed and nodded, "Yup, my Panpour had a pretty hard time with its fierceness. I just wondered if you meant to train them like that."

Skyla grinned cheerfully and said, "I wonder if I accidentally got one of Cliff's Pidoves." She laughed at her own joke and was joined by several other voices.

I didn't feel the cheerfulness though, I kind of felt put down by it. It wasn't that my high standards for the Gym Leader had crumbled, but it was that I felt isolated from the fun.

"Hey," Malcolm interrupted my unhappy thoughts with a grin. "What are you going to do in two days?"

I frowned at him and said, "Probably trying to complete whatever Skyla throws at us… why?"

Red-head famous boy leaned back in his chair and said, "Well, don't take this the wrong way, but after I caught my Pidove, I went on the free computers and looked you up on PokéBook. Isn't your birthday in two days?"

_Oh crap, I had forgotten all about that._ I shrugged and said, "Yeah… I guess it is. But I can't take a break just because it's my birthday…" I mumbled. It wasn't surprising to me that Malcolm had looked me up on PokéBook. If I wasn't taking a nap on the asphalt and watching the fight after capturing the Pidove, I probably would have done the same thing to him.

"So you don't want to do anything special, even over the weekend?" the red-head looked a little sad. Why had I assumed that he knew a lot more about parties than I did?

I shrugged, trying not to blush. _Great, now he's getting 'interested' in me… He wanted to ask about my birthday…_ "I don't usually do a whole lot for my birthday in the first place." Yep, the poor little homeschooler in me was popping up again. All my parents and I did really to celebrate was to eat a favorite dish of mine, eat cake, open a few presents, then go on with normal life.

He smiled in return, as if saying, 'I'll be sure to change that'. "Ok, so if you had a birthday list, what would be on it?"

I didn't honestly know. _Maybe a few treats for Len and supplies…_ I hated to admit it, but I was a sucker for stuffed animals. I just was. Never take me to a Toys R Us, I swear I will change into a completely different person there. It didn't help that in Castelia they had a super huge toy store… I was barely able to make it out of there alive and still with money left in my wallet. "Uh, just traveling supplies. Some Pokéchow, I got the box ripped open in my backpack…" I choked out.

Malcolm shrugged and stopped that subject, sensing I didn't like to talk about it. He pointed at Skyla and her merry band of idiots. "So, what do you think of Skyla eating with us?"

I sighed and said with a more confident voice, "I think she liked the fight going on and had nothing else to do. Maybe this is even a twisted sort of test…" _Landorus, I was thinking according to the game way too much. _"No, never mind…" I said to clear my last comment.

He laughed lightly. "I think it was because that stupid emo guy had a rare Archen. I mean, you can only get one of those Pokémon after finding a fossil and waiting forever for the museum people in Nacrene to revive it."

My eyes bugged. He had called Tim an emo guy! Maybe I was being a bad influence on him.

He continued in a casual way, "And I wanted to kind of see what other Pokémon he had, but that didn't work. I just realized that everyone pretty much knew about my Pokémon, so I assumed that everyone would be honest about theirs, but Tim's a mystery…"

I pinched myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Nope, I wasn't.


	9. Keeping Tabs

So it turns out that Malcolm was either telepathic, or he had lots of the same ideas as I did. But that's ok… I think. No wait, if it came down to me or him for the position of gym underling… crap, what was I getting into?

Anyways, the dinner with Skyla went as well as I expected. She was being a true red-head and was simply enjoying talking about birds and flying with the people that were closer to her table. I guess even gym leaders had things they liked to talk about. I guess since she was a dedicated Gym Leader she had to love her work, or else she would turn into a Volkner who just wanted to become an Elite Four member… speaking of which, how in the heck do you become one or even get the chance to train under an Elite Four? That would be something to put on a resume!

Back to Skyla, she certainly got along better with guys, outgoing ones at that. The guys surrounding her were starting up conversations and laughing loudly. Once again I was on the outside, hoping against hope and the forces of Landorus that she would accept me as her underling. I tried to think back to the form that I had signed to see if she was only taking one person on as an underling or if she was even switching out a few of her older underlings. But no, I don't have a photographic memory.

Skyla was still sitting there, eating and laughing merrily like a friend. She was a freaking **Gym Leader** and she was eating with us after her underling Cliff said that we weren't even to address her until week two. But hey, she set up this whole thing, why should I try to make sense out of it?

I finished my meal and tried not to sigh. I envied people who could just come up with random topics, kind of like Malcolm when he isn't food-inhaling. I singled out Timmy-Tim-Tim in the crowd and saw him smiling and laughing along with the group. I didn't know if I wanted to puke or gawk in rude awe. Yup, Tim was certainly a hero-worshipper of Skyla. I half hoped it wasn't because she looked really good in her revealing outfit. Sometimes some guys can be really shallow that way…

"Why are you so quiet?" Malcolm said beside me, interrupting his own eating frenzy. "Why don't you tell me about your Pokémon?"

_And why would I want to? That would just give away my team…_ I remembered what he had said earlier in the meal. _"I just realized that everyone pretty much knew about my Pokémon, so I assumed that everyone would be honest about theirs..." Ok, fine, if I think that it's a good thing, then I should actually show it._ I cleared my throat and said loud enough to be heard over the joyous laughs, "I told you I have a Larvesta and a Palpitoad, right?"

He nodded and smirked, "Your little fire-bug torched Tim's shirt. How could I forget that?"

I tried to smile back, but I ended up laughing. At least I wasn't laughing too hard or else I would start snorting, and that would be really bad. "Ye-Yeah!" I calmed my giggles and continued, "Well, those two Pokémon I got as eggs. Actually, weird coincidence, but your cousin Eugene Kwester gave me them." I paused to see his expression.

He wasn't as excited as I thought he would be. "Yeah, Eugene is pretty popular. I wouldn't doubt that he's helped hundreds of trainers to get their ideal Pokémon." He said a little dejectedly. Was it just me or was he a little put out by this?

"Yeah, well, long story short, I ended up on a long journey to get a starter Pokémon. And when I found out that I had to travel two or three more days to get one, I just threw a Pokéball at a Lilipup and started that way. I found out later that I was allergic to furry Pokémon so I gave away the Lilipup and got a Tympole and Larvesta instead." Wow, I impressed myself on how much I was saying. He asked for basic information about my Pokémon team and I was giving him my life. Then again, Len and Sundazzle were so much a part of my life I couldn't imagine life without them.

Malcolm didn't look bored, so I kept on talking about my Pokémon with all of their quirks. "Len the Palpitoad is the sweetest thing ever! He calls me 'Pal'. I don't really want him to become a Seismitoad because he won't call me 'Pal'… and Sundazzle is a nasty little," I paused and said a kinder word, "witch. I mean, she loves to fight and runs off sometimes to fight others."

Red-headed famous boy nodded, for once on the smaller side of the conversation. "So did you fight Cilian or Cress at Straition?"

I grimaced and admitted, "I haven't challenged that gym. I heard about it, but the only gyms I really fought in myself were Castelia, Driftveil, and Nimbasa."

That got his attention. "Why only those three?"

I didn't want to go into details, so I shrugged it off. "They just turned out being the ones I could win." _Crap, I said it anyways…_ "But I'm not anywhere near the level of Brycen, so if I wasn't in this competition, I would be training like heck to beat ice-type Pokémon."

Malcolm seemed a little confused on the fact of losing to a gym and not re-trying until you won.

"But I'm never going to face Iris** or** Drayden of Opelucid…" I said firmly while shuddering on the inside.

"Why not? Isn't that what all trainers are supposed to do? I mean, we generally have to beat all of the gym leaders, then the Elite Four to become a complete Pokémon trainer, right?" he said.

I was wondering about that too. Did every trainer have to go to the Elite Four? What if they weren't good enough or skipped gyms? But no matter what, I cannot face that dragon gym… _thanks mom and dad__, you gave me a fear of dragon Pokémon. Dang Kyurem…_ I realized that as always I started thinking on a tangent and Malcolm was waiting for his answer. "Um, I don't think it should be. Other trainers can't always get that good… Who really faces an Elite Four member that doesn't have a great name behind them anyways?" Crap, I had to stop talking.

Malcolm raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

I breathed quickly and tried to hide my anger-filled bias to famous people. "You know, like that Ketchum guy, and other famous people fight the Elite Four on TV, how many times have you seen a rookie with no real name coming out and challenging them?"

He shrugged and let the matter rest like that. I was relieved. "Anyways, my other two Pokémon are a Stunfisk and a Vullaby-" for some weird reason, my talking was cut short just when I mentioned my Pokémon names. Did they do this on purpose?

Skyla commanded the attention on the café. "Hey, if you guys are all done, I'll show you back to the hanger. You'll get a break from overnight missions. But I'll brief you guys first." She stood up and walked over to the door, waiting for us to finish up and eat. I thought she'd be like 'GET YOUR LAZY BUTTS IN GEAR' but I guess not… She was using 'you guys' informally, as if we became a huge group of friends…

The group of eighteen hopefuls quickly left their places and went to join the Gym Leader, me included. Don't get me wrong, I certainly feel respect for this bird-lady, but I can't understand her. I don't worship the ground she walks on, but my heart does pound a little harder in the presence of a famous person like her. Confused? You're in my shoes.

We exited the café like good little kindergarteners: all in a line. I couldn't see who was right behind Skyla, but I would bet money on Tim the Emo being there, if not the second in line. I found myself closer to the black chic I saw from earlier. I kind of wanted to talk to her, seeing as she might be the only girl that wasn't as scary as robot Jamie. But all hopes of that were killed as she blabbered to a black guy in front of her, talking about the skills an Emolga would have in this gym. _Nope, I'll wait until later to talk to her._

The sky was dim and gloomy when we stepped out of the Pokémon center. Time had passed quicker than I expected, or maybe the sun was just going down sooner. Here in Unova we have a thing called daylight savings time and when the seasons change, we change the clock by and hour so we have work during daylight. Since it was the fall, we would soon 'fall back' an hour. But oh well, my Xtraceiver was sensitive to such time changes, so I didn't have to worry about the transition with setting clocks and the like… _Landuros do I think on tangents!_

Skyla led us to the hanger just as a pesky cold wind blew up. I shuddered, not because I was cold sensitive. Get a map and see that Lacunosa and Anville Town are very northern in Unova. But cold wind… it always meant to me that Kyurem was close and ready to eat disobedient children, or anyone who was outside during the night…

During my early trainer days, I always had to be inside during the dusk and night hours. Thanks a lot, Lacunosa! It took a month at most for me to even think about camping outside during the night. I feared wild Pokémon a ton! But after Sundazzle and Len had promised me to stand guard while I slept, the fear went away slowly. Obviously I was sort of recovered since I slept last night under a tree tempting Pidoves with collars to nestle around me. But suddenly that cold breeze and night… I felt that old fear rise in me and I fought to keep it down. That would be a terrible thing, I could **not** freak out about the dark and the cold in front of these others!

I gulped and hugged my arms to my belly, fighting off any temptations to think about the terrible drawings and portrayals of what a Kyurem would look like and the many victims strewn at its feet… _No, think of happier things, like how much I'll bug Emo-man about his star-worshipping and how cool it is that Malcolm and I actually agree on some things… _Maybe I could think of what life as a gym trainer would be like, that would be cool. I could specialize in birds and defeat trainers that weren't ready to fight the gym leader, even give them a few pointers. I would know birds inside and out, down to how to defend against their weaknesses.

Feeling a little more confident about myself, I walked along with the group, ignoring the cold gusts.

Skyla paused at the entrance of the gym and announced to the group, "Ok, tomorrow you get a sort of baby assignment. In other words, you have to take care of the Pidove you caught today and treat it like you would your own Pokémon. The collars will indicate whether they felt comfortable or not. I won't eliminate any of you for this round, but your scores with the Pidoves will influence what you will do in future contests. Got it?" Somehow she was back in army sergeant mode, challenging us not to screw up or else suffer the wrath.

I wouldn't put it past Skyla to do something terrible to a person with her Pokémon or her cargo plane for some reason… I gulped and nodded, accepting this task. Hopefully Pebbles and the Pidove would get along. Though I don't know what I would do the whole day while taking care of the pigeon… at least I didn't have to worry about getting eliminated.

The grateful few (my new nickname for the gym underlings) gathered up the cage full of Pidoves and scuttled back inside, as if giving a nice perch to the birds for a job well-done. _Sleep well, my Pidove…_ I thought a little sourly. I went to great lengths to catch that thing with Gregor, so it had better give me a good score… **I'd** better get a good score, that is.

Skyla decided to act friendly once again. The red-headed gym leader smiled and said, "Get on to the hanger now. The cargo flight takes off at nine in the morning. I'll be flying it, so Cliff and the rest will explain the rules of this next mission. Until then, goodnight." She turned and walked into her gym… _wait; did her gym have a bed in it? Was that her home? That couldn't be… could it?_

I shrugged off the idea and turned around to head for my backpack in the runway and to then make for the hanger. I was the first to do this strangely. I never was a trend-setter, not on purpose… I picked up the heavy pack and marched off to the hanger. _Oh joy__, sleeping on the ground._ I guess it was too much for Skyla to offer us rooms in the Pokémon center.

I found a corner in the empty hanger, set out my stinky sleeping bed (oh Landorus, I forgot how it reeked of Pokémon slobber and old Pokéchow). I plugged my nose and after my pillow was laid out, I wriggled myself in it.

For some reason I wanted to write down everything I knew about my competitors so far. I sighed, rolled over in the cocoon-like sleeping bag, and pulled out a pad of paper and a pencil. This pad of paper was useful because I had many Larvesta notes on it, along with all of the other Pokémon I had in my team or was planning to get. I flipped to a clear page and started taking notes about the people I knew so far.

_Jamie_

_Weird robot girl that drinks tea and talks very little… Pokémon: Woobat, Ducklett, and Pawniard called Dewey. She looks frail but somehow packs away food quick and knows what she is doing._

_Malcolm_

_Famous red-head that has a Cottonee, Braviary, Darumaka (?), and…_

_What else does he have?_ I suddenly remembered and jot it down.

_Famous red-head that has a Cottonee, Braviary, Darumaka (?), and Timburr. Very outgoing and seems to like me… relative of the trio siblings. Wants to be everyone's friend and talks a lot about his team._

_Tim_

_Emo man who attacked me with his Archen. I burned his shirt and Sundazzle seems to hate him. emo that wants to be annoying and cause fights, though he hero worships Skyla. Pokémon: Archen and three others (?)._

_Gregor_

_Has a full team of Pokémon and is super smart. Helped me get my Pidove. Pokémon: Purrloin, Throh, Tranquill, and three others (?)._

Yup, that was all the people I knew by face and heart. I closed the notebook, satisfied that I could keep tabs on my competitors. I saw that other trainers were getting to the hanger with their stuff as well, so I closed the notebook, called out Len, and fell asleep.


	10. A Wild Foreigner Appeared!

Let's just say that I had a really weird dream last night. I usually get weird dreams when I'm sleeping on the ground and not in a bed. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with a Pidove and Pebbles, along with emo man attacking me with his fossil Pokémon and what abominations the rest of his Pokémon team would be. Somehow I paired him up with a Deerling that jump kicks everything in sight, maybe even a Bouffalant…

Anyways, I awoke earlier than the rest of the trainers and I got to see where they all ended up. All of the guys were on the other side of the hanger (thank Landorus) sleeping in sprawling patterns. There might have even been a guy that moved in his sleep and somehow ended up resting his head against some guy's stomach while his feet were resting on another guy. Heh heh… funny. And on my side were Jamie and the black chic.

I really needed to meet this girl. Maybe once she woke up I could talk to her. She seemed kind of friendlier with guys though, like a tomboy. I'm a hint of a tomboy myself, seeing as I don't hang out with girls all that much (then again, who **do** I hang out with?) and playing with hair and painting nails… if it's cheap I might consider doing it with friends…

Ok, enough tangent thinking. I was going to go to the Pokémon Center, get all washed up and ready for the day, and then I would go through a simple little task of babysitting my caught Pidove. Not too hard, right? That was going to be a breeze, I can get along well with Pokémon… at least I think so.

I sighed and stood to my feet, wriggling out of the stinky sleeping bag. I seriously needed to do something about it, or maybe see if I could get a new one. It was a little chewed up anyways… I looked around and realized something, Len was gone! My little Len! Where was he?

I started scanning the area for the little sound toad. I had called him out last night, didn't I? "Len…" I whispered. I didn't want to wake up everyone in a mad search for the Palpitoad, that wouldn't make a good impression as a friend of the famous Malcolm. "Len, come here, boy…" I whispered again. I couldn't face the day without the little guy. Don't get any weird ideas of Pokémon love between me and the Palpitoad; he's like a son to me since I raised him from a tadpole. He was my golden child!

"Pal."

I heard a faraway cry of my Pokémon. Was he outside of the hanger? What if he found a grass Pokémon? I left most of my gear (except Pokéballs, that's regulations to keep them on you at all times) in the hanger and ran out to find him as quickly as I could.

_What was with him? He never ran away from me! That was Sundazzle's job._

"Palpi, pal."

"Poli."

Wait, was I hearing right? Was Len talking with a Poli… sort of Pokémon. Was there a Pokémon in Unova that had a 'Poli' in its name? I exited the hanger and found Len wagging his little tail and talking with a frog-like Pokémon. Unfortunately, I didn't have a clue what it was. It was green and fat with a curl on its head and a goofy grin. It was standing by the barren garden beds. Beside the strange Pokémon was a guy. Was he in Skyla's competition? I don't remember seeing him before…

I walked forward and listened in as best I could on the conversation between Pokémon (like that would do me_ any_ good). I mean, I could kind of tell when Len was angry, so I didn't want him to be getting involved in a fight without me. I came closer and the guy turned to face me. Thanks to the barren landing strip, I couldn't have hidden very well unless I was a ninja, which sadly does not apply to me.

I smiled and waved slightly. "Hi, that Palpitoad is mine…" I stammered.

The guy standing by the strange Pokémon smiled back at me. He had very short black hair in a fo-hawk style; he had kind of the same skin tone as me, as well as pulled back eyes. Even a round face and nose! Now I was beginning to worry. _Ok, Utopia, wake up! _I thought frantically. He thankfully wasn't wearing the same kind of clothes I was, or I would have spazzed out in fear of having a twin. He was wearing a t-shirt (in this weather?) that had really weird drawings on it. I think I recognized the language as (what we Unovians call) Kantoan. It looked like gibberish to me.

The stranger that kind of looked like me gave a little bow, more like a torso bend forward, and said, "Helro, you must be a good trainer to have such a nice Palpitoad." There was something weird about his speech, as if his 'l's were pronounced as 'r's and his vowels sounded disjointed, along with his words. Was he a foreigner?

"Um thanks," I said uneasily. "Are you in Skyla's challenge?" I asked. I was pretty sure I had not seen him before… and that Poli-whatever was certainly not Unovian. Then again, I didn't know each species by heart, that thing **might be** Unovian…

He frowned and said in his heavy accent, "Yers, I wirrl charrlenge the Skyra…" he looked confused at what he himself was saying, or maybe what I was saying.

"Are you competing to be a gym underling?" I asked.

He frowned and said, "What?"

I slowed down my talking and said, "Are you going to be** working** under Skyla?" somehow this guy was more important than getting Len back and getting ready for the day. I glanced at my Pokémon who was happily talking with the Poli-frog thing. Wait, did Pokémon all speak the same language? That would be interesting to look up.

He shook his head and smiled kindly, "No, no, I rish to battle Gym Reader."

I nodded and glanced at my watch. It was about eight in the morning. Lucky guy! Skyla was going to fly off at nine. He was going to have an hour to challenge the gym! "You're lucky; Skyla was going to leave, but only in an hour. You should get to the gym right now if you want to go."

He seemed confused at my sting of syllables and nodded slowly.

"Well what are you waiting for? Skyla's this way." I pointed across the landing pad to the hanger-like gym. He nodded and returned his Pokémon to a Pokéball. Was it my imagination, or was that Pokéball somehow different from Unovian Pokéballs?

I started walking towards the gym and sighed, "Come on, Len, let's watch a gym challenge!" I almost forgot my sweet Pokémon.

"Pal!" Len said happily and jumped to meet me. He began to walk beside me, but looked back at the challenger from time to time.

I figured that I had to know about this guy a little, at least know where he came from. "What's your name?" I asked the Asian-looking guy.

"I am calred Weyler, I'm from Hoenn." He said simply and looked at the gym with a hint of… what was it, nostalgia?

I didn't know much about the overseas nations, but I knew that there was a pretty bad political uprising not too long ago, like a year or so… I could hardly believe that I was talking to a person that probably survived the uprising, a trainer from that context. "Cool, so you came to Unova to continue your gym training in Unova? How is Hoenn?"

He looked a little lost for words again, but he said, "My home… it is far away. I train to herlp… to honor sister…" he smiled and pointed to his head of short hair. "This is rearl hair corlor."

I nodded along with him, unsure what to make of his real hair color. _Sure… ok, good for you. I have black hair naturally too. _I didn't want to ask any more about his family because it was really hard for me to understand his accent.

We got to the gym and an old guy (the same guy that stands at all Gym Leader gyms, I swear!) greeted us. "Hello, are you two going to fight Skyla?"

"I'm not; I just wanted to take this foreigner to the gym. Can I watch too?" I said in my usual quick speech, a nice change from slowing down for this Weyler dude… "And I'm in the underling challenge, so I can't really battle her."

The old man nodded and gave the short-haired guy fresh water (an item that can strangely heal Pokémon).

Weyler accepted the gift and said, "Domo arigato." I can honestly say that the phrase sounded familiar, but I had no idea what language it was… wait, wasn't that Kantoan or something? I forgot and I didn't care. The old man didn't seem offended. Either he didn't know what he said as well or he knew it was a nice thing.

"The gym aides are tending to the Pidoves for the aide challenge, so you can go ahead and see Skyla. I don't think she's taken off yet." The old man said helpfully.

"Ah, Mamepato, hai." Weyler agreed. _No idea what that was either. Hoenners have a really weird language. _"Skyra is here?" he said in accented Unovian.

"Yes, she's in her office getting ready to fly. It's a good thing you came when you did. Follow me." He gave a torso-bow to Weyler and waved both him and me to wherever Skyla's office was.

I could barely contain my excitement for some odd reason. Maybe it was because I just loved Pokémon battles (watching them of course). Or maybe it was because this foreigner was a new thing to me. I kind of wanted a Pokédex now so that I could get info on his rare overseas Pokémon, but alas, _no tengo _(that's Spanish for "I don't have it).

The old man led us to a secret stairwell leading away from the awesome human-launching cannons. We walked up a little and found ourselves in a slight birdcage-like place with a Swoobat, Swanna, and an Unfezant (female) perching on the pegs on the wall. There was a desk with a surprising amount of paper work on it and an eager Skyla jotting something down.

"Lady Skyla, you have a challenger." The old man bowed respectfully and exited the study.

I could hardly believe I was in Skyla's study. I could only imagine how many others competing for the position of underling would give to actually be in this room. _Timmy-Tim-Tim might give me his Archen for that chance. Heh heh… _I looked at the three birds perched around the room. The Swoobat is a pretty cute thing, I have to say. If it kissed you with its nose, you'd have a heart shape on your cheek. It's a cute little bat with fluff and a weird claw-like tail that ends in a slight heart shape. Swanna and Unfezant were impressive too, though I think male Unfezants are cooler with a red mask-like thing.

"You can't… oh, hi!" Skyla addressed me first, then the Hoenner second. "Sorry, I thought she was going to challenge me. She might work for me one day, so that wouldn't work very well, would it?" she got up from her drawing and held out her hand pleasantly to Weyler. "I'm Skyla, and I'll battle you. Who are you?"

Weyler nodded and accepted her hand and added a slight bow to his handshake. Once again he seemed unfamiliar with our language and said, "I wish to battle you, Gym Reader Skyra."

The woman in the blue flight suit nodded and pointed to a side door. "Go out there for a battle field. I'll get my Pokémon." She smiled at me and said, "Is this a friend of yours?"

"No, I just found him and his Pokémon talking to mine and I wanted to help him. I wanted to watch the match too, if you're ok with that." I had to be careful about how much I asserted myself around a future boss. "His name is Weyler by the way."

The red-head nodded and said, "Ok, take him out to the battle field and I'll get ready. I think you could be a ref for this match, huh?" she winked and marched to her three bird Pokémon.

I wasn't planning on being a referee, but I guess I could… I motioned to Weyler and said, "Ok, let's get you ready for a Gym Badge." For some reason, I didn't doubt that he could win.

…

Skyla came out to the battle floor after a few minutes of our waiting. She put her hand on her hip and said, "Ok, just because you aren't native to Unova, I'll still fight you with all my wit." She smiled and called out her Swoobat. "Call out your Pokémon."

"Kokoromori…" Weyler muttered to himself and drew out his Pokéball. "Nyronotono!" he called out and his green frog-like Pokémon jumped about happily.

"Poli, Politoed!" it hummed.

Wait, now I was confused. Was 'Nyronotono' its species name or a nickname? And if it was a species name, why'd it say 'Politoed'? Now I was really curious about Pokémon language. Did it say 'Politoed' because that is what the name is in Unova? Did it learn PokéUnovian speech? _Maybe the problem was my ears… No, it had to be a nickname… right?_

"Swoobat, use future sight!" Skyla commanded in a flourish. The Swoobat cooed and its eyes glowed, seeing into the future at an attack it would perform.

"Nyronotono, bounce!" commanded Weyler. The attack name was familiar, just not the name of the Pokémon. The Politoed/Nyronotono croaked happily and jumped up in the air, bounced on its butt, and then flew into the air, aiming for the Swoobat's head.

The Swoobat didn't need direction to know to dodge. It had seen the future and it was prepared. The cute little bat fluttered out of the way quickly and trilled. The Politoed landed on the ground, wounding nothing.

I tried to stop watching the fight like an amused spectator and tried to think of myself as a referee. _Landorus, I really want to just watch. I've never seen a person from a different region fight. It was enchanting…_

"Surf!" Weyler commanded and his accent less recognizable as he shouted. He was kind of a cool, collective guy who was watching and taking down mental notes on everything. Well, besides the shouting part.

The Politoed clapped and summoned up a wave of water from seemingly thin air. He had to have gotten the water from the steel ground or the moisture in the air, right? The wave went crashing towards the Swoobat and the bat dodged it again. **I** didn't have such dodging skills (and neither did Skyla) and we both ended up a little wet.

"Swoobat, use the future-sight attack now!" Skyla called out while ringing out her now wet hair. The Swoobat seemed more than happy to use the attack. Its eyes glowed and the frog Pokémon staggered from a mental attack.

Weyler didn't look fazed, neither his faithful Pokémon. "Hypnosis and Hydro Pump." The foreigner ordered.

The Politoed strangely bounced on its bum again to get to eye-level with the bat Pokémon. Before the Swoobat could look away, the Politoed had sent a neural message that triggered the Swoobat to fall into a doze. In the same breath, the frog Pokémon took a deep breath and spat out a large pulse of water at the sleeping bat.

Skyla's Swoobat fell to the ground, asleep and unable to battle… _unable to battle… Landuros!_ "Swoobat is unable to battle." I choked out a little late. I pointed to the froggy Pokémon and proclaimed in a flair I had seen on TV before, "The victor is Weyler's Politoed… Nyronotono… thing…" Yeah, I couldn't even ref right…

Skyla returned the bat and called out her female Unfezant. Actually, all of Skyla's birds were female; it's just easier to tell when it's an Unfezant… "Ok, this match will only be two-on-two; I've got to catch a plane soon." She apologized.

Weyler nodded, though I didn't know if he understood what she was saying. He called back his water-type Pokémon and called out another foreign Pokémon. This one was beautiful, much more beautiful than the Gothitelle of Unova. It was humanoid, wearing a long white dress and it had green short hair. It said in a mystical and soothing voice, "Gardevoir…"

"Akama, psychic!" the teen shouted. I was pretty sure that 'Akama' was a nickname.

The move hit and the Unfezant swayed under the power of the attack. Was it just me, or was this Pokémon stronger than Politoed? Skyla noticed it as well and ordered the Unfezant to not play easy. "Façade!" the bird flapped its wings and dashed forward and slammed into the lovely woman-like Pokémon.

The Akama/Gardevoir thing took the hit, but it didn't look very effective. And that was weird because it's a pretty powerful move. I didn't want to fight this guy and his (what's-it-called?) Pokémon.

The foreign Pokémon delivered one more psychic attack that landed the bird. I called out that Weyler was the victor and he smiled and kept his Pokémon out to see the badge.

Defeated and running low on time, Skyla returned her Pokémon and shook the winner's hand. "Good job. Here's a jet badge and a nice TM called 'acrobatics'." She said quickly and put the objects into his hands. "I've got to get going, but send my regards to the next gym leader you face, ok?" she patted his back and marched off to get into her cargo plane.

I smiled and stared at his un-returned Pokémon. It was a really beautiful Pokémon, one sure to win in the Nimbasa Pokémon musicals.

Weyler looked at the badge and handed it to the Akama thing. "This is for her…"

"Gar…" the Pokémon agreed and held the badge close to its chest.

I didn't know what was going on with this guy… but before I could ask, he gave me a torso-bow again, said "Domo arigato," and went back the way he came.

I kind of missed those trainer days, when you could just travel around, fight people, and not care if the next round you would be eliminated… Oh well, if I lost I could go back to that. I waved to the empty space and sighed. "That was pretty cool to see." I said out loud.

I jumped and checked to see where Len was. Did I return him or was he talking with another Pokémon? Nope, he was in his Pokéball… I guess I returned him somewhere back there… _Oh well, on with the day. I'm going to take care of a Pidove for a whole day and nothing can stop me!_

**A/N: Hey, everyone. For those of you who have read my Targeted and Fallen Trainers stories, you know who this foreigner is :). For those of you who don't, that's ok. Weyler won't be showing up again for a while. **

**And another thing, since Kanto, Johto, Sinnoh, and Hoenn are kind of designed after Japan areas and Unova is kind of like New York City area (just look at Castellia), so I would think that the other four regions would speak a different language. That brings a new dimension for the Pokémon world to me and I like it. However, I didn't make the attacks their Japanese names, because that would take a little more research than I'm willing to commit to. But yes, "Domo arigato" means "thank you very much" (for those of you who don't know the song Mr. Roboto by Styx).**

**Thank you for you reading and reviews :) **

**~Zangoose-Kira**


	11. Tim's Second Pokemon

After an exciting battle watching event sort of thing, I felt pretty happy. Stinky and needing of the Pokémon center's bathroom, but happy. All of my Pokémon seemed ready to have a fun day with a Pidove partner, or at least I hoped so. You can never really tell with them when they are in their Pokéballs.

I sighed and paused before I left the gym. I had to at least check with the official underlings when the Pidove babysitting would start. I didn't want to wash up only to somehow end up showering and missing out on the next challenge, therefore destroying the blood, sweat, and tears I had put in so far. Ok, that's a slight exaggeration, but still…

"Hey, when will you be giving out the Pidoves?" I asked the nearest mechanic.

The man turned around and nodded politely to me. "Hey, the Pidoves will be given out at brunch outside of the Pokémon center around eleven. Didn't you see the sign?"

Crap, I was seen as a dumb blonde now, and I wasn't even blonde! A dumb ravenette? Whatever. "Oh, I guess I missed it. Sorry." I said as quickly as I could. I was half-tempted to try to peek at the cages and see if the Pidoves were somehow being lectured on how to make their respective trainers miserable. I could just see the training session in my head now: a Pilot pacing back and forth (no, riding a Sawsbuck, that's classier) and giving a motivational speech on the fight they should put up, Braveheart style.

The mechanic Brady (thank Landorus for name tags) seemed to sense my curiosity of the Pidoves and held out his hand. "Hey, you can't see them until then ok?"

"How do you know which Pidoves will go to which person?" I asked. Somehow the brag about a fighting Pidove from one of the other competitors last night at dinner didn't catch my fancy. If I was going to put up with a Pidove, I wanted a tame one.

"The one you caught will be your charge for the day, that's Skyla's plan." Brady said calmly. I could barely tell this guy apart from the main mechanic and underling Cliff. _Wait, did they switch name tags to be funny?_

"But What if I caught my Pidove by covering its face?" I protested.

Brady sighed and said mysteriously, "What do you think the collars are for?" He placed a hand on my shoulder and pushed me away slightly. "Ok, get along now."

I didn't see any reason to fight back, so I thanked him and left the gym. I guess the collars were a magical sort of thing now. They could somehow keep the Pidoves within a range of two miles and could identify which trainer caught them… I wonder if they could tell time and take pictures. Almost everything electronic now has a time-telling function.

I emerged out into the fresh air only to see a terrifying sight. Skyla's huge cargo plane was taking off, but she wasn't flying it off of the other side of the landing strip. It looked like she was aiming the hulking cargo ship right at the gym, as if in one of those action movies that the hero takes off just in time.

I gave a hardly dignified "eep" and ran for the forest for safety from the charging airplane. I glanced back as I ran, thinking how far Skyla was taking her loss against Weyler. _Slow down lady, it's only a gym fight!_ I thought like a pleading therapist. Maybe she was actually insane but hid it well until she flew a cargo plane! The plane closed in on the gym at an alarming rate. Just as it looked like it was going to bowl over the hanger-like gym, I ran into a tree.

Dumb luck, I know. I smacked right into a tree and fell back, dazed and humiliated. Only George of the Jungle purposefully smacked into trees when he wasn't looking! Now here I was, a strange little Utopia sprawled out on the grass at the foot of the tree. I blinked several times and looked at the world upside-down style. The gym was still in good shape, which meant that I missed the take-off. I could barely hear the plane's engines, but I blamed the collision with the living wood on that.

I sighed and simply lay on my back, looking at the ground that looked like the ceiling of the world. At least no one had seen that, right?

"Smooth…" a dark voice crooned.

Of course, I couldn't be allowed to have a private humiliating moment. I sat up and glared at Tim the Emo who was all coolly leaning against a tree trunk. _Yeah, go and look cool you annoying little Skyla worshipper. _I thought bitterly. I glared at the dark boy, not daring to try to say anything. I was afraid that I would start crying from embarrassment.

The emo-man stared at me with his annoying superior look. "So, what were you doing in the gym? Were you trying to get ahead of the competition?" Of course he would be thinking of the competition, it was what made him a shifty person.

"No, for your information I was refereeing a battle for Skyla between a foreigner and her!" I snapped back. _Ha, take that! I bet you'd kill for an opportunity to ref for Skyla._ I thought.

It did irk him, he didn't hide it. Timmy-Tim-Tim scowled at me and seemed to reach for his Pokéball belt.

"Hey, no fighting!" I yelled and got to my feet. I felt a little dizzy but I didn't want to show any weakness to this guy. "Today's going to be a nice, relaxing day with just a Pidove babysitting task. I don't want to fight."

"You're just yellow. Besides, after seeing me and Malcolm's battle, I bet you'd never want to face me in a Pokémon battle." He glared back; his white skin and black hair gave him almost a vampire look. I could almost swear that if he was a vampire I would search my bag for a wooden stake or a silver bullet… or something that could kill a vampire.

"I'm just annoyed by you, that's all." He certainly played this game differently from Malcolm, who saw everyone as friendly people who wanted to work together to build a civilization of rainbows and butterflies… ok, maybe not that extreme, but that's the jist of it. I crossed my arms and tried to look intimidating.

Tim seemed not to like anything I said, not even if I said that Skyla sent him a secret fan-letter. He held out a Pokéball and said threateningly, "I want to fight you, so call out a Pokémon before Archen uses acrobatics."

I glared back. "I'll only fight if you use a different Pokémon other than that fossil bird, and only in a one-on-one!" if he agreed, then I could see one of the other Pokémon he had, and that excited me in a way.

He grunted unhappily. He put the Pokéball back on his belt and said begrudgingly, "Fine…"

I could hardly believe that worked. I smiled mentally, but stayed serious on the outside. _What was with this guy and fighting? Did he say that he __**wanted**__ to fight me? What was his motive?_ "I'll use my last ditch Pokémon if you use yours!" I said and called out Sundazzle. Yes, she was my last-ditch Pokémon simply because she was strong and when I called on her help, it was dire.

He took out a Pokéball and glared at me. "I'll use my strongest Pokémon. I doubt you can hurt him!" He threw a special Pokéball to the ground and it opened with a flourish. I had heard of other regions having such things as ball capsules to decorate the entrance of their Pokémon with certain stickers. But no, this was a luxury ball, a special Pokéball that seemed to influence a Pokémon's happiness towards a trainer. I held my breath to see what one of his secret team was.

It wasn't a Bouffalant, thankfully. It was a small black Pokémon that hovered in the air. It had red eyes and two long arms. On its tail-like thing was a creepy mask that looked like a sleeping young human face. If I remembered correctly, it was a Pokémon called Yamask.

"Sundazzle, you know what to do!" I said in a cool style. We didn't have a secret code or what not for certain attacks, so she simply stared at the floating ghost. After a few seconds, I grumbled, "really, you know what to do, right?"

"Lar." She said and waited.

I sighed. Sometimes she was simply a witch.

"Looks like I have the first move then." Emo-man said deviously. "Ominous Wind, Luke." The Yamask glanced back at him and nodded. It closed its eyes, drew in a deep breath, and began to blow out a stream of purple tinted wind that sounded like tormented souls screaming. Not one of my favorite attacks.

Sundazzle took some damage from that gust of howling wind and seemed a little shaken at the creepiness. She responded by spitting out a glob of fire at the ghost.

The fire burst somehow went through the ghost and landed at Tim's feet. He yelled in an undignified manner, which made me smirk in victory. He was certainly scared of Sundazzle's fire.

Tim's glare was enough to make me flinch. He had fire in eyes now, and not from the flame burst attack. "Luke, let's not play with them anymore! Shadow Ball attack!" the Emo commanded in an effort to reclaim his dignity.

"Sundazzle, you don't want to be hit by that attack. Dodge it." I commanded. The little fire bug however waited patiently, as if nothing was wrong. The Yamask gathered up a fleet of shadows in its arms and hurled the sphere at the Larvesta. The Larvesta replied by spitting out another flame burst to counter the shadow ball. The two attacks exploded on impact, sending a slight shock wave of power.

The smoke cleared after a second, revealing that the Yamask had moved. In fact (and I gasped at this fact), Luke the Yamask was in front of Sundazzle and shoving a shadow ball at her face. Neither she nor I could react fast enough to try to avoid the Yamask's attack.

The Shadow Ball attack slammed into Sundazzle's head, sending the fire bug flying back. She gave up the fight by staying on her back and squinting her eyes shut. Trust me; the swirly eyes are only a thing people see on TV. I grimaced and scooped up the wounded fire bug, and then I remembered her stinking flame body ability. I hastily returned her before my skin and clothes would burn. Some Pokémon are just not meant to be hugged: Pawniard for example.

Tim smirked. "Once again I beat you in a fight. How do you think you stand a chance against stronger trainers than yourself?" the emo loomed over me.

Strangely, his Yamask floated up to his head and said plaintively, "Yaaaaaa…" I didn't know what to make of the Yamask since I knew nothing about its species.

Timmy-Tim-Tim looked at the little ghost with a mask on its tail. He suddenly looked sad. I really was confused now. The emo-man glared at me and turned his shoulder to me. "Well, what are you waiting for? Don't you want to take your Pokémon to the center?"

I grumbled and stared at the Yamask. Was it just me, or was that Pokémon special to him? He did use a luxury ball on the Yamask, not to mention that it had a nickname. Tim's Archen didn't have one. But what did I know of ghost Pokémon anyways? _Maybe this ghost Pokémon was a cause of Tim's emo-ness…_ After all, ghost Pokémon could make one really depressed. I didn't want to run away like a frightened girl. No, I wanted to show him up somehow. I hadn't done even one hit point of damage to the Yamask and it burned me up. "I want to try to fight your Yamask with my Palpitoad." I growled and held out another Pokéball.

Tim seemed to like that I was ticked. He nodded at his Pokémon and said, "Ok, Luke could use a little more practice."

I sent out my dear little Palpitoad Len on the assumed battlefield. The little sound frog jumped up and down happily, calling out "pal" for me. Did I mention that I love this little Pokémon?

Luke the Yamask hovered back in front of Tim the Emo and seemed ready for round two.

"Len, Muddy Water!" I yelled out. This attack had to hit the Yamask!

The blue sound toad summoned up a wave of dirty water up from the soil and sent it streaming towards the opponent Pokémon. I cursed Landorus as the little ghost simply hovered over the attack. But hey, at least Emo the Tim got a little wet from the attack. What was with my Pokémon and attacking Tim lately?

"Shadow ball!" the dark haired boy commanded. The Pokémon didn't perform the attack though. Instead, it turned around and gave him puppy eyes. I didn't know what to think of it. Maybe Len was really cute and the ghost didn't want to knock out such a nice and cheerful Pokémon.

I just went along with it. "Len, Supersonic!" He had four attacks, Bubble Beam, Muddy Water, Supersonic, and Round. I think most ghost Pokémon are immune to normal attacks when they deal damage, but all status attacks affect all Pokémon. My Palpitoad waggled its headphones and sent a sound wave out to distract and confuse the Yamask.

The Yamask held its head where its ears would have been and cried out. It turned to face Len and wobbled a little in its hovering.

_It worked!_ "Bubble beam!" I shouted. Finally, I had done something to the emo Skyla-worshipper's strongest Pokémon. I would show him now! I forgot all about the hesitation of the Yamask beforehand. Now was my time to win.

"Luke! Snap out of it Luke!" Tim yelled. The Yamask tried to focus, but the bubbles from Len slammed into its body, this time affecting it instead of passing through.

After some time in the Celestic Tower, I had learned that Litwicks usually received damage when they were confused. Len and I had fun cleaning up that tower of the ghost candle Pokémon. After all, why would anyone want a Pokémon that eats your soul hanging around a graveyard? I knew a little about ghosts and their weakness to confusion preventing them from avoiding every attack.

Tim seemed as if he was wounded along with his Pokémon. He grimaced and yelled out, "You can do it, Luke! Snap out of it and use shadow ball!"

I would have to think about this later, right now I was winning and about to show up the annoying emo-dude! "Finish it up with Muddy Water! Give it your all, Len!" I called.

Len sent out another wave of murky water at the Yamask. The ghost Pokémon seemed to have a clear enough head though to float over the wave, leaving Tim suffering another splash of dirty water. Luke the Yamask summoned up a shadow ball, but seemed to sink into confusion and let the ball of power hit itself. "Mask!" It cried out and drifted to the ground slowly. It was wounded badly by its own ghost attack.

I let out my breath happily. I had won a match against him! I won against Tim! I looked at Len and crouched down to his eyelevel. I opened my arms and hugged the sound Pokémon. "Good god Len! That was amazing!" This time my Pokémon hadn't gotten any damage!

I looked up and saw Tim cradling the wounded Yamask in his arms. He pulled out a persim berry and fed it to his Pokémon. I was caught off-guard by his tenderness.

"Who was Luke to you?"

Bothme and Tim jumped at the third person identifying herself. I looked over and saw the blonde and pink haired girl with her little Woobat in her arms. She looked deep into Tim's eyes and repeated her question. "Who was Luke to you?"

The dark haired boy didn't answer her. He closed his eyes and said, "I don't know what you are talking about!"

I glanced between the two trainers and half-wondered if they had known each other before this contest. Sure it was weird that Tim had named his Pokémon, though I named my Pokémon, so who was I say that it was weird? But Luke sounded like a very human name… Did Jamie think that… no, that couldn't be possible!

"Was Luke a person you knew?" Jamie persisted with her emotionless tone and face.

"Luke is a Pokémon. Humans aren't reborn as Pokémon, it isn't possible." Tim shot back defensively.

"Then you named the Yamask after someone you knew?" the robot girl asked evenly.

Tim glared and stomped off into the forest, more than likely pulling another temper. I paused and stared after the emo-man. He certainly was a strange person. Only now I was beginning to think that he was pretty misunderstood.

The blonde girl stroked her Woobat in her arms like an evil mastermind stroking a Glameow or Purrloin. I gulped and hoped that my allergies wouldn't kick up at the Woobat's fur. Jamie looked at me and my Palpitoad. "Good morning, Utopia." She said in the same even tone she had used when asking about Tim's Pokémon.

I nodded. "I need to head to the Pokémon center …" I needed to grab some new clothes from the handy backpack. And depending on the level of work required today with Pidoves, I might do some laundry in the Pokémon center too.

"I as well, come on then." She said in her strange way. She turned and started walking towards the Pokémon center.

I getting used to this town very quickly. I returned Len after another compliment and followed after her. I glanced back to the woods as if to watch out for the Emo boy just in case of a sneak-Archen-attack.

"Are you worried about Tim?" Jamie asked simply while stroking her Woobat.

I glanced back at her and said, "I'm just watching my back…" I sighed and asked, "Did you know Tim before this contest? Did you know anyone? You seem to know what's going on pretty well."

She didn't answer. Jamie continued walking silently.

I grumbled to myself. Sure, she could ask questions, but she never answered anything I ever said. I decided to drop it and just walk with her and her Woobat to the Pokémon center. I could hardly wait to get showered up. Boy, things seemed to take so long! First was the foreigner fight, then a fight with Tim, all before taking a decent shower!

**A/N: Yay, after a while of doing homework, writing a novel in a month, and stuff like that, I found time to write this chapter. Thank you for reviewing and reading :)**


	12. Soothsaying and Pigeons

After a much-needed shower and a little brunch with Jamie (who barely talked when I asked questions), I was ready for this task of taking care of a pigeon all day. I waited with the blonde, fragile-looking girl that acted more like a robot at the entrance of the Pokémon center. The Mechanic Brady said that the Pidoves would be brought out after brunch… or was that Cliff? I can't tell those underlings apart…

"So, you think the Pidoves will be demons?" I asked casually. I wasn't expecting an answer; she never seemed to like answering questions.

As I predicted, Jamie stayed silent. She simply sat on the bench with me and seemed to stare off into nowhere. I still didn't understand her. She seemed so fragile looking, and yet she was clever and very emotionless. She saw the weirdness with Tim showing a lot of favor to his Yamask and guessed that it was a resurrected spirit of someone he knew or even named after a dead friend or relative. It was a ghost Pokémon, so she could have some point there, but it showed that she was sharp at reading people. But through it all, Jamie continued to stay a strange person who drank tea and have a Pawniard called Dewey. I knew nothing about her: hometown, last name, even which of her Pokémon was her starter. Did she have family?

**I** had family, a mom and a dad back in Anville Town. But outside of that… I didn't know. We never went out to visit relatives. I always thought that they were too far away. But after fifteen years (sixteen as of tomorrow) I would hope to at least know my extended family a little better.

I paused in that train of thinking and thought of something completely different. _That one foreigner Weyler… he was from Hoenn, but somehow he and I looked alike. That couldn't be coincidence, right? Was he really from Hoenn, or was it the other way around? Was I actually supposed to be a Hoenner?_ I started thinking about things as in switched at birth or maybe even adoption… _but then again I looked like my parents, so I couldn't be adopted, right? Maybe I didn't see family because they were actually in Hoenn or one of those overseas places… but then why didn't they speak a different language?_ I was confusing myself now. _Ok, now on the priority list: call parents and ask about looking foreign_…

"Poké for your thoughts?" Jamie asked quietly.

I sighed. "You don't want to know."

"You are quite popular." She said simply and continued to stare off in the distance. That was the second time she had said that! Was she simply observing it, or was she kind of jealous? I couldn't tell from her emotionless face or tone.

I sighed and continued to sit on the bench. Since we had already eaten, we were only waiting for the rest of the hopefuls to finish up their eating. "Why do you think I am popular?" I asked.

"You are Utopia, that is why." She answered cryptically.

_Utopia, great, that's a great answer. "You're popular because you are you!" _I thought sarcastically. I wanted to ask a flood of questions simply from my annoyance of her simple statements. I managed to ask, "How old are you? You look like a teen still, but you act like a stinking soothsayer that sits on a mountain!" I regretted talking in that tone of anger, but I was getting fed up with her strangeness. I wanted explanations instead of guesses.

She stared off into the distance, her pupil-less eyes seeming to see everything and yet nothing at the same time. Then Jamie finally said, "I'm twenty-two."

I could hardly believe that a girl that looked like her could be in her twenties. She looked my age if not younger.

Jamie surprised me by continuing her talking. "I sound like a soothsayer because I am one, except for the mountain sitting part."

I stared at the girl with pink streaks in her hair. I smiled a little and said, "Ha, I get it, that's a joke, right?" She couldn't be a soothsayer. I mean, those people were psychics and fortune tellers. And those kinds of people traveled around and made money, not to mention dress up in strange costumes and wave their hands around magic crystal balls or Cloyster pearls.

She didn't look at me, which didn't give me a hint to whether I was right or wrong.

I sighed and started staring off into my own thoughts as well, though they were so muddled with the foreigner appearance and this Jamie… she was getting weirder and weirder. But if she really was a soothsayer and older than me, that would explain why she was smart. But still, what was with her tea parties and un-evolved Pokémon if she was an older trainer? Maybe she did have a connection to Tim… But how…?

Finally the rest of the group of hopefuls exited the Pokémon center in a mob. The guys all talked happily to each other about the amount of food they could stuff down or the epic Pokémon battles they had just barely won. I spotted my Pidove-Partner Gregor in the group. I smiled at him, but he didn't notice me. I was fine with it. I looked around and saw that Tim wasn't in the group. Did he come back from his defeat at all? I saw Malcolm and he sent a wide grin at me.

Before he could call me to the attention of the other thirteen some-odd guys, the mechanic Cliff walked out holding a bird cage. The many Pidove inside fluttered their wings in fright and chirped. The Mechanic addressed us as a group, "As you know, Skyla is away flying her cargo plane, so I'm in charge today. Your task is simple. Take care of a Pidove as if it were your own Pokémon. If you treat it nicely and earn its liking, it will give you a sign."

_A sign? What kind of sign was this?_ Hopefully it wasn't a gift of a blob of white bird poop on the head.

Cliff the Mechanic opened the bird cage slowly and the birds hopped out leisurely. I was impressed that such frantic birds could behave so nicely. One by one, the birds fluttered up to each of the trainer's shoulders. One bird landed on a boy's shoulder, then instantly fluttered off to find the right person. Maybe Brady was right about the collars.

I suddenly felt my Pidove flap up to me. It blinked its yellow eyes and twitched its head in a normal pigeon way. Its hard claws dug into my thigh and jeans to get a good grip on me. I reached for my backpack and took out the same t-shirt I had covered its eyes with. Before it freaked out and tried to fly away, I wrapped the shirt around my arm and but it near the birds feet.

The Pidove understood my efforts somehow and climbed on my padded arm. I suddenly felt like a falconer and my little Pidove could be sent out to catch little Patrats to eat… never mind, I didn't like eating Patrats. I petted its smooth feathers gently and it pecked at me. _Sheesh, I'm just trying to win your friendship._ I thought at the little bird.

The Pidove decided to try its best to ignore me even though I was right in front of its face.

"Bonus points if you can find out its nature and tendencies." Cliff called out to the rest of us and held up the empty cage. He spotted a Pidove that he not found its capturer yet. I could only guess that it was Tim's. Cliff looked around and said, "Isn't everyone here? Who caught this Pidove?"

I jumped as a Yamask appeared from thin air and patted the Pidove. The bird cheeped in excitement as well, as if its little heart couldn't take surprises. I knew whose Yamask that was. Heck, who else had a Yamask besides that emo-kid? The Yamask waved to the Pidove and said gently, "Yaaaaa Yamask."

The Pidove didn't seem to like the idea, but it flew into the air and after the ghost Pokémon.

Cliff was about to run after the Yamask and Pidove, but Jamie said in her flat tone, "Leave it be, the Pidove will go to its right captor."

The mechanic gave me and Jamie funny looks, but let the two Pokémon go.

_What a lazy bum!_ I thought about the emo man. _He sends out his Pokémon to get something he should have gotten in person? Was a Pokémon battle loss that hard on him? _No, that couldn't be it; his Yamask that had been previously injured had just gotten the Pidove. _So he's just scared or something. Maybe it's Jamie… what happened in their pasts? Did they know each other_?

I mentally face-palmed_. Calm down, Utopia. All that you have to worry about is winning Skyla's gym challenge by learning about bird Pokémon. You don't need to delve into other people's lives just because they are strange and attention grabbing. Ok, just make a Pidove like you and go through Skyla's training. If you don't win, then find something else to do with your training career._ Ok, self-motivation over! I glared at the Pidove and thought to it, _you __**will **__like me_!

…

After everyone got their Pidove, they all dispersed. That surprised me first of all. I would have figured that the hopefuls would want to brain storm together or chat, but they all went off their separate ways to have time with their wards.

Even Jamie went out, undoubtedly making a picnic and talking with her group of Pokémon over a cup of tea. I wondered what kind of soothsayer she claimed to be. _Did she read palms or crystal balls?_ I shuddered as I remembered that some ancient fortune-tellers sacrificed a Pokémon and read a fortune from the organs… Ok, now I was grossing myself out. But really, if she claimed to be a soothsayer… what did it all mean? If she was in her early twenties, why was she in this competition? By now she would have a job by now. What good did it do her to go into this two-week training?

"PI!" the Pidove at me arms chirped. It glared at me with surprising fury with its little golden eyes.

"What?" I gulped. Right, I had to do something to get this Pidove to like me. I was guessing that this was a one-day thing and that at the end of the day the Pidoves would become the gym's property again. That simple thought made me loath the idea of growing a liking to a bird that was only going to go away after a day… Who made a Pokémon friendly in a single day anyways?

I took out my Pebble's Pokéball, but thought better of it. _Crap, Pebbles doesn't like other Pokémon all that much… Maybe the Pidove would get along with Len. They could have a sensible chat and then we could all get along and get bonus points… _now I was feeling Malcolm's optimism. _How do I learn what the Pidove I caught liked or disliked?_ I sighed and thought wearily, _trial and error_.

"Hey, want to meet my close friend Len the Palpitoad? He's really nice!" I said in a cheesy voice, as if talking to a cute (and furless because I can't stand the fur) kitten or child.

The Pidove glared at me and then decided to ignore me as if I wasn't worth it. Then again, I knew that feeling. Sundazzle had been a little like that. But the way I got Sundazzle to somewhat like me was lots of time together._ Landorus… _If this Pidove (I guessed it was a male Pokémon, but it's always hard to tell with bird Pokémon…) was like my Larvesta, then I'd have to treat it like the fire bug… no, **better** than my fire bug.

"Hey, have some treats or something." I said and fumbled with my backpack while the bird was perched on my arm. I pulled out a piece of kibble and held it out. Pidove refused it. _Fine. But if you want food I won't give you fish though… I can't afford that kind of stuff. _I put back the piece of kibble and tried to think of something else.

I perked up when I remembered that I found this Pidove **swimming**. Maybe I could let it swim on the hidden lake I found yesterday. I stood up and carefully slung my backpack over one shoulder. "Ok, let's go to the lake for you to swim in." I started walking towards the woods and felt the sharp claws dig hard into the t-shirt. I flinched and yelped. "Landorus! Easy there!"

I glared at the little Pidove again. It was grey with a white heart-shape on its breast and mainly black wings. It had a small feather-crown on its head and a pink 'cere' over its beak. Yeah, I know… I researched birds a little before coming to the competition, so the word 'cere' was familiar to me. It was pretty much the waxy pink thing above its beak. Woo, go terminology…

He seemed like a little bugger of a Pidove with small pupils and an almost haughty look. "I might guess your nature is the proud kind, but I don't know that for sure…" I mumbled. It (or he) didn't look affected by my observation, so I guess that was incorrect.

I looked at the bird and sighed yet again. "I've heard that Pokémon like to be nicknamed. I won't take care of you for long, so I shouldn't get **too** attached to you…" I paused and thought why in the Unova region Skyla was even doing this? How would bonding with a Pidove help me in future rounds? I shrugged and looked at the grey bird again. "But I'll call you something anyways…"

Ok creative energies, start working! _I think this bird is a pretty proud one, so a great historical name would be good. Maybe Napoleon for his fierceness and smallness… no…Theodore! I liked that name._ I grinned at the bird and said, "Ok, crazy idea, I name you after a past president of the region. He liked to go swimming and do all sorts of reckless stuff when he was younger. You'll be named after Theodore Roosevelt, Theo for short. How's that?"

Theo the Pidove strangely accepted the nickname happily. _On step in the right direction…_ I thought.

I heard something overhead and saw a Braviary flying. And of course, Malcolm Kwester was riding on it. Malcolm and his Braviary called out in excitement, along with the Pidove that was Malcolm's charge. The Pidove looked really happy to be flying around in the open sky… I sweat dropped. I had Pebbles the Vullaby and had no way of doing that flying trick with her and the Pidove Theo. _Landorus, does Malcolm always have amazing ways of doing things? Why can't I be that awesome?_

I looked back at Theo. "Sorry, I can't do that with you…" I apologized.

The Pidove simply continued to glare at me, as if daring me to impress it. I nodded back. "Fine, if you want to be impressed, then watch as Utopia shows you wrong! I mean…" I blubbered and finished with a weak and embarrassed, "I'll impress you, ok? Len likes me so not every Pokémon can hate me…"

**A/N: I have to say I was not expecting that Jamie was a soothsayer myself. That's the fun part about writing though… :) Thanks for keeping up on reading old and new readers alike. Zangoose-Kira thanks you for your time.**


	13. Utopia's Despair

_Ha! Sometimes I amaze me._ I pulled out Eugene Kwester's handbook on Pokémon-raising from the jumbled mess of a backpack. _This ought to help me find out what can make a Pokémon happy!_

I let Theo scurry around my feet as I browsed through the book. After all, it was filled with lots of material that helped me through Len and Sundazzle's childhood. I remembered a section where it talked about giving affection to a Pokémon and getting its love in return but couldn't remember what section it was in. I flipped through a couple of times before consenting and looking to the table of contents. I didn't like looking in the table of contents; I read this book enough that I should be able to find it by memory. I had to give Eugene Kwester kudos for making such a handy book though. I lived on those words when raising my Pokémon from hatchlings.

I flipped to the page and scanned it with my brown eyes. I needed a get affection quick tip, one that could be done in **one** day. I came up with a simple tip written by the Unova famous Pokémon Breeder: "spend time with your Pokémon doing things it likes." I sighed. _I could have guessed that without looking through a book for twenty minutes! _I thought.

I looked up to make sure that Theo the Pidove wasn't flying away or something to that extent. My best idea was taking him for a swim, so I decided to go with it. I put the handy and worn book back into my backpack and hoisted the bugger backpack on my shoulder.

"Hey, Theo," I called to the little bird. I strangely wouldn't put it past him to fly to a statue and drop a pretty white blob of poop on it simply for the fun of it. The Pidove bobbed his head, blinked a few times, then decided to fly up to my arm. I flinched as his claws clamped hard onto my arm. "Ow!" I yelped and jerked my arm on instinct.

Theo fluttered back into the air, twittering angrily. I waved my hand at him to shut up and I grabbed my ruined shirt for him to perch on instead. I held up my arm again and coaxed for him to get out of the sky and back to me.

The Pidove was either too stupid or too angry at me to comply. He turned tail and flew away.

I grumbled to myself and ran after the bird, thinking of terrible curses to think Landorus' way. I barely noticed my surroundings as I ran after the fleeing bird. All that I cared about was reclaiming him and getting him to like me. That was my life for today, not asking about the weirdness of Jamie and Tim-Tim and the weird coincidences with Malcolm. No, I was going to be focused!

I ran until the backpack began to feel like a Gigalith on my shoulders. I couldn't help it, but I slowed in my run. I wasn't the ideal runner type that Malcolm or Tim appeared to be. Sure I was content with myself, but I wasn't a fit person. I grumbled to myself and looked back up at the sky.

Theo was perched in a tree, twittering away like a lark. I could have sworn he was taunting me. "Get back here and we can go to that lake you liked, ok?" I called up to the tree angrily.

"Uh… ok…" a hesitant voice answered behind me.

I groaned and turned around. "Not you, I meant the bird…" I stopped as a recognized Gregor, the hero-nerd that helped me get Theo in the first place. He was with another guy that looked kind of like the mechanic that worked for Skyla except for the fact that he was somehow smeared in grease and his green eyes shone through the grime on his face, even a smear or two of grease was on his helmet, where his Pidove contentedly nested. The guy wore stained overalls and had a handy wrench in his pocket for when the time called. I didn't know this guy next to Gregor, so I yet again failed at a good first impression by yelling up at a tree. _Yay me!_

Gregor, the kind hero-nerd, stroked the Pidove in his arms and stared at my apparent lack of one. "Having trouble, Utopia?" he asked.

I gave up any hope of pulling off a 'sure I'm just peachy' approach and nodded. "I'm not the best with my bird…"

The unnamed mechanic, hereafter nicknamed 'grease monkey', grinned at me. "Hey, me too! My Pidove flew off and perched on a light pole for a while until Gregor helped me out."

_Gregor helps quite a lot of people, doesn't he? He'd be a good person to keep around for the later rounds…_ I mentally slapped my forehead for thinking about the challenge too much again. "Sure… could I get a little bit of help too?" I said with a grimace/smile. "I promise that I won't always need help. I'll start fending for myself after today, I swear!" I vowed to him.

The hero-nerd chuckled. "Hey, it's not a problem. I have a Tranquill, so I know Pidoves a little better." He pulled out a Pokéball clumsily while holding his Pidove at the same time. He held out the Pokéball and said, "I won't make you suffer through my Purrloin's fur again."

"Hey, yeah, that's kind of you…" I said with the grace of a Swanna being shocked by a Stunfisk it landed on. There again was the classic bumbling of Utopia. Was I ever going to change?

Gregor called out his bird Pokémon, a nice Tranquill with the little black hood and grey and black wings and tail feathers held high. The bird Pokémon stretched out its wings and chirped sleepily. The nerd pointed his Tranquill up to Theo singing away in the tree.

Before the Tranquill could leap into the sky and teach Theo a lesson (or something to that extent), Theo stopped his singing and fluttered down on his own will. Instead of going to me, my little Pidove landed on Gregor's arm and cooed at the Pidove he was holding. Gregor shrugged and returned his Tranquill.

_Right, Gregor and I found ours together on the pond…__Great,__ does that mean we are in-laws of a sort?_ I thought._ I mean, what happens when your Pokémon likes someone else's Pokémon?_ But Theo wasn't mine, so I guess that I wouldn't have to worry about it. I grinned slightly and said, "Good job, you certainly do have a way with Pidoves…"

The hero-nerd nodded. "Hey, our Pidoves seem to like each other. Maybe they will be friendlier to us if they are together. Is that ok?" he said.

I nodded. "I was thinking of going to the pond where we found the birdies. But besides that, I don't have any plans." At least my Pidove didn't like Tim's; that would be chaos in a can.

Gregor nodded and said in a hint of embarrassment, "Oh I forgot, this is a friend of mine. His name is-"

"Bob's the name." the grease monkey introduced himself. His Pidove was perched on his red and greasy helmet seemingly content to perch.

_Bob? What kind of name was that_? I could yell out "Bob" in Castelia and half of the people would turn their heads to see who was calling them! But at least he was a mechanic, so Bob the Builder could be a fitting nickname. I nodded and introduced myself in return. "Utopia Fletcher."

Bob grinned, his green eyes sparkling. "Yeah, I know you! Malcolm was talking with you when that emo kid challenged him to a show down. You must be pretty popular if you can hang out with him."

_Again with the popularity!_ At least someone else said it instead of only Jamie. Now I could actually start to see that I was in fact a little popular. Well, if a famous person pays attention to you, you are bound to get a little attention as well. I blushed and said as modestly as I felt, "Yeah, I guess so."

Bob seemed a little friendlier and talkative than Gregor, so he went on talking. "Me an' Gregor go back to middle school, he an' I! We were both kind of the analytical type, him at the thinking and me at the tinkering. You would hardly believe what we made at the science fair that year! Boom!" he exclaimed.

"A bomb?" I asked uncertainly.

"Nah, just an amazing little machine that some inventors saw and liked. They asked permission, used our project as a prototype, and made an improved version ready to sell!" Bob the grease-monkey Builder said, obviously proud.

I had no idea what they had built. "So, what was it?"

Gregor smiled and said, "We made an early version of a dowsing machine that is now being mass produced. We don't get all that much credit, but we get a check every so often as a little percentage of their earnings. Nothing big." He said modestly.

_Crap, they were smart!_ I felt happy to just pass science classes in the past. Though in homeschool that did get a little easier because I didn't have any science fairs to embarrass myself at… I could just see it now, young Utopia making a typical volcano and hiding in the corner so no one could scoff at her weak attempt at science. But I digress, science wasn't my strength. I smiled and nodded kindly to not appear uninterested.

Gregor handed me Theo the Pidove and the three of us began to walk through the woods, Gregor leading the way and Theo chirping away to (what I perceived as the female) Pidove Gregor had in his arms.

Bob the grease monkey smirked at me and continued to talk about himself. "But besides knowing Gregor, I joined this Skyla's competition because I'm a good tinker and stuff, so I figured if Skyla let me I could design and build up really cool cargo planes that took up less oil and fuel. You know, gotta stay with the eco-friendly movement, right?"

I continued to nod and smile.

"So, that's about what I'm in it for. I found this Pidove sleeping in a tree, so I climbed the tree and caught it with my bare hands. I felt really proud of myself. I didn't have to use a single Pokémon." Bob ranted on, and then paused. "Hey, what kind of Pokémon do you have?"

I smiled and nodded before realizing he asked a question. "Um… my Pokémon?" he nodded and I said, "Palpitoad, Larvesta, Vullaby, and Stunfisk."

"Sweet! I've got a really cool steel-type Pokémon that's also flying-type. In congrats for the dowsing machine proto, my dad went all out and bought a rare Pokémon from overseas for me. It's kind of like an armored bird, almost like a plane!" Bob said, waving his hands around.

First, I was impressed that the Pidove stayed on top of his helmet, and secondly, I began to try to picture what an armored bird slash airplane Pokémon might look like. I grimaced as I remembered the frightening incident of seeing Skyla fly her plane over the Gym and I just happened to be in the way and see a charging plane. Then I pictured a Pidove wearing medieval armor, complete with a sword and shield held with its wings… that made no sense…

"Why don't you show her?" Gregor suggested over the twittering of Theo and the other Pidove.

Bob slapped his head, disturbing his helmet and Pidove a little. "Oh, sorry, I get excited an' I don't think. I'll call 'im out right now!" he smiled kindly and pulled out the rare Pokéball. The Pidove on his helmet flapped its wings before settling down once again and drifting to sleep.

I steadied Theo with my hand just in case the Pidove got any idea of escaping. I was not going to catch him again!

Bob called out his Pokémon and it emerged with a fierce shriek, one that strangely reminded me of the dreaded Kyurem… the bird was tall for being able to fly and completely covered in metal except for red feathers that made up its wing. It had a narrow, pointed head and evil yellow eyes. It glanced around the area and held its wings close to its side, as if waiting for a battle.

Theo was panicking by the time the strange Pokémon had closed its metal wings with a clang (Ha, ha, Klang and clang… you know that gear Pokémon…? Never mind). Theo's little heart pounded against his ribcage and I swore I could actually hear it. I stroked the little bird quickly and was tempted to cover his head, but stuck with the stroking. Theo calmed a little, but eyed the beast warily.

"So… what is it called?" I asked Bob the grease monkey.

"This is Skarmory. I didn't nickname 'im because he's got a rare name an' all, you know?" he said and patted the bird, leaving a little grease smudge on its chrome body. The Skarmory seemed annoyed but didn't do anything to clean up the mark.

"Let's keep on going, we should get to the lake." Gregor said in his quiet, modest nature.

I suddenly realized something. I was really good at analyzing people but when it came to Pokémon I was at odds. I had no idea what Theo's nature was and yet somehow I could probably guess what Bob's was. Great, I can read people but not Pokémon. That makes no sense! I raised Pokémon from eggs and did half of my schooling on the internet… how did I get those two mixed up? As we walked on (Skarmory returned to its ball) I continued to think about the simple strangeness of my life.

I was an awkward, shy sort of person who didn't regard herself too highly and yet not too lowly either. I was allergic to most furred Pokémon and had a fear of dragons (thanks to Kyurem and Lacunosa Town). I tended to think too much about this strategy wise and yet I was really ignorant when it came to science and math sorts of stuff. I liked to wonder about things but I never got around to researching them. I wasn't a really good writer… my only skills seemed in reading people and somehow gaining favor from a semi-famous person. My Pokémon skills were a little lacking since I couldn't seem to win over my Larvesta all that much.

Was that who Utopia Fletcher was: a simple little girl with a hint of people skills in a Pokémon world trying to make it as a trainer? I felt really depressed after thinking through all of that. If my skills were simply in wanting to break the norm and people skills (reading, not interacting), should I try to go to a university and try to make it as a psychologist instead of the trainer path that many, many people failed at?

I stroked my Pidove to try to stop thinking about my strange and seemingly hopeless life. My dad worked on the subways. He was able to live off of that salary. Mom worked part time and a small Anville trading center and completed the salary of the family. What could I do when I got old enough? Could I really train Pokémon as a living? Could (and even want to) I win this challenge and work my way up to gym leader?

"Hey, we're here." Gregor said and put his free hand on his hip. He looked at me and said, "We can let the Pidoves swim if you want."

I paused a little to snap out of my thoughts and start thinking about the present. "Uh, yeah." I held out my hand and Theo flapped off of it to the water. Gregor's Pidove joined him and they went paddling off on the surface of the smooth and undisturbed lake. Bob's Pidove continued to sleep on his helmet.

Gregor sat down on the browning grass and looked out at the natural beauty. "Nice place. It's not a mystery why Pokémon come here."

Bob nodded and leaned against a nearby tree, setting down his helmet and Pidove. "I'm gonna take a few 'z's, ok?" he said and began to snore. His ability of sleep was something to be impressed at, or maybe even envied.

Gregor glanced at me and said, "Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong…" I said firmly. I didn't want to unload my thoughts on a hero-nerd that I hardly knew. Then again, when did I ever unload my thoughts and fears? Maybe it was back in Nacrene or something… no, it had to be sometime after then… but one time I cried in a Pokémon Center room and wept to Len about a recent loss or something. Unloading on a Palpitoad… yep, that was a first.

"You just spaced out again." Gregor pointed out. He shrugged and said, "It's fine if you don't think you have anything wrong going on. That's what most people do. We just say, 'how are you' and we always reply, 'good, how are you' back. But not everyone actually feels the 'good' we say."

_He's a philosopher as well as a genius. How could I not see that coming?_ I sat down and kept up my mask of I-am-really-ok. "I guess that's true, but I'm good…"

We sat a little in silence, listening to nature breath around us. It was calming and yet so calming that my previous haunting thoughts about my future kept popping up. I didn't want to think about them, and certainly not tell Gregor about them. Sure he helped me get Theo and get to the next round, and his Pidove would be a key in getting the bird to like me, but I couldn't ask more from this generous guy.

I cracked from the weight of the silence and asked, "So, besides Bob, do you know anyone else in this group of competitors?"

He nodded. "The one guy who failed the first challenge, I knew him. Bob, him, and I went to the same high school in Driftveil. Bob and I said good bye to him after he failed. We are going to meet him at Opelucid City once we are done as well."

"Oh, so you're from Driftveil? Must be interesting to be right next to a drawbridge…" I remarked.

"It's nice. We get quite a bit of rain, but it's fine. Clay, our town gym leader, held lots of gym opportunities to look at the fossils he dug up and the power of his Pokémon. I figured that I wanted to be a gym leader after hearing from Clay what it meant to be one. I couldn't decide which one to go to, so I chose the one that was offering a hiring first. So here I am."

I nodded. "Funny, I'm in it more because I want to be the first girl gym underling under Skyla. She's only hired guys and I want to try to break that mold…" I paused and said, "No offense…"

"None taken." Hero-nerd said with a kind and strangely intelligent look. "Are you by chance a feminist?"

"Not really, more of an original person, one who seems a norm and wants to break it." I replied. I couldn't figure why I was saying this to Gregor. I hadn't even told Malcolm, the famous guy I was so chummy with about my cliché breaking quest. I knew hero-nerd very little… maybe it was because I had heard quite a lot about him and wanted to be open back. I smiled and said, "So what type would you want to specialize in?"

The hero-nerd shrugged. "I've got six types of Pokémon for my party. I've got normal/flying, ice, psychic, fighting, dark, and dragon. So I don't know."

I gulped. "You have a dragon Pokémon?" I wished I hadn't said that!

"Yeah, want to s-"

"No!" I retorted a little louder than I expected. I couldn't help trembling a little at the thought of a dragon in a Pokéball so close to me…

He shrugged. "Ok."


	14. Pidove Problems

I shuddered. I really did. Gregor, for all of his niceness, had a dragon Pokémon in his team. If I ever had to give him a battle, I would not want to fight that dragon of his. I didn't care if it was a 'cute' Axew or blind Dieno… I just can't stand dragons…

I didn't want to make Gregor feel uncomfortable simply because I had a fear of one of his Pokémon. After all, he had helped me so much and yet he had a Pokémon I was allergic to and a Pokémon a feared. Let's just say that our friendship will stay simply that: friendship.

The lake was so nice to look at, and Theo the Pidove was having a good swim. I was nowhere close to understanding what his nature was, but at least I wasn't making him want to peck my eyes out.

A shape appeared in front of me and I jumped. A Yamask simply materialized in front of my face. What would a normal person do? Well, Utopia Fletcher jumped and eeped. Yup, that's what I do best… I stared at the ghost Pokémon that was undoubtedly Tim's. "Hey, what do you want?" I huffed at the ghost that had scared me.

Gregor turned and looked at the Pokémon. "Is that yours?" he asked.

"Nope, it's Tim's…" I said back, hate rolling off my subtext and tone.

"_I'm a him."_

I blanched and stared at the Pokémon. "Did you just…?" Pokémon couldn't talk… normal Pokémon do not talk!

The ghost Pokémon closed its eyes and thought through what I supposed was telepathy, _"I'm a male. My name is Luke, remember?"_ he opened his eyes, red as blood… no rubies. Blood was too gross to think about.

Gregor stared at me. "You can talk to Pokémon?"

I looked at hero-nerd and said, "No, but this ghost Pokémon… Yamask… can use a sort of telepathy. I guess ghosts can somehow talk through the mind kind of like psychic Pokémon…" I looked at the small ghost and asked it, "Yeah, I remember you, but why are you haunting me?"

The ghost clasped its huge hands and thought to me, _"I know that you might not get along, but Tim needs help with his Pidove…"_ I gave it a look that said 'you've got to be kidding me'. The Pokémon continued pleading. _"I didn't know who else to find and Tim won't say it himself. But if he challenged you to a battle with me, then that means he has __**some **__respect for you. Please help…"_

"Respect? Tim doesn't respect me! He laughed when his Archen attacked me. He's been glaring at me since I introduced myself. I don't care if he was dangling off a cliff or drowning, I won't help him!" I said, and then thought it was way too harsh. Gregor gave me a look that also confirmed that I might have gone overboard with the analogies and the spite.

Luke the Yamask didn't give up on his pleading. _"But I can't help him, only a human can and I'm not that anymore…"_

I jumped a little. "Wait, you were human?" I asked the Pokémon.

"_All Yamasks were." _Luke replied with his telepathy.

I could almost hear the distinct child-like faith in his thought-voice. I looked at the golden mask on his tail again and shivered. The face showed a person's face. Not an extremely detailed face, but still a face, young one at that. That was Luke's when he was human… and he** remembered** when he was a human as well. Maybe Jamie was right when she said that Luke was a friend of Tim's…

His loyalty to the snobby Tim was enough for me to sway my conviction a little. "What kind of help does emo-man need?"

The Pokémon clapped his hands and tugged at my hair. _"Come on, I'll show you where he is!"_ he thought happily.

"Wait, can't someone more helpful come to his aid? I mean, what can I do? I've got a Pidove to watch over and…" I muttered. I didn't say I **would **help him, I just asked what kind of help was needed.

"_But you're the only person I've met and I can't talk sense to Tim's Pidove… I'm scared…"_ the ghost admitted and let go of my hair. He looked at his golden mask and became terribly sad.

I felt my sympathy drift out to the little ghost. I mentally urged myself to try to rationalize helping Timmy-Tim-Tim simply because I felt sorry for his Pokémon slash friend… thing. Besides, Luke seemed like a younger person and my heart went out even more to the Pokémon. He had died young, maybe of something unexpected… I tried not to cry as I thought about it a little too much.

I stood to my feet and asked the kind and modest Gregor, "Do you mind if you watch out for my Pidove while I try to help that guy?"

The hero-nerd shrugged. "If you want to go help that person you hate, then I'll be abosultely fine with watching over your bird." He said with a small smile. "It's really nice of you if you want to help a person you hate. Most people who do that are religious."

I shrugged. "I swear at Landorus if you call that religious. But I think I'll help out the guy just so I don't have an enemy."

He nodded and waved me off. "Go then, your bird will be safe with me."

I looked back at Luke the Yamask and said with as little emotion I could, "Ok, bring me to your leader." I smirked in spite of myself at using the over-used alien invader quote.

Luke looked so happy it gave me a little thrill. He hovered around in a circle and tugged at my hair again. _"Ok, thanks so much!"_ I followed his lead and after a little he let go of my hair, trusting me to follow.

As we walked along, Luke turned to me and asked through his telepathy, "_Can you call out your Palpitoad? I think he's a nice Pokémon… even though he defeated me in combat, he's a really nice Pokémon."_

"Uh, sure…" I called out Len and he jumped up with a great cry of 'Pal!' I smiled at My Pokémon and patted him on the top bump on his head.

Len started waddling with us through the forest and keeping up conversation with Luke.

"Palpi pal Palpitoad!"

"Yaa Yama ya mask-mask."

"Palpi."

"Mask, mask."

I sighed and asked the telepathic ghost, "Ok, what are you talking about?"

Luke closed his eyes in a happy sort of gesture. "_Nothing…"_

I just knew they were talking about me. I just knew it. This reminded me of people that either spoke a different language or made up a language to talk about things that would be rude if overheard. I always felt paranoid when I was surrounded by people that spoke a different language simply because if they called me stupid I wouldn't be able to understand or defend myself. "Fine, I'll let you Pokémon talk…"

_What if I asked Luke about Tim?_ I knew that if I tried to ask about Luke to Emo-man, he'd say nothing. But would Luke be more open to it? He was a little more open than Tim; he did admit he was scared back at the lake… "Hey Luke? Can I ask you something?" I hoped that I wasn't going to offend him with the upcoming question.

The Yamask gave me his full attention.

"Did you know Tim before… you know… you died?"

There was a long and awkward pause and I stood still. Len glanced between me and Luke and asked a cute little questioning 'palpi'. Luke closed his huge red eyes and clasped at the mask on his tail. I waited, unsure of whether to apologize or not.

The moment dragged on and I finally thought to apologize. "I'm sorry-"

"_Yeah…"_

"What?" I looked at the ghost. Was he saying 'yeah' to the apology or my question?

Luke seemed to sigh and said to me, _"I knew him when I was human… but ask Tim, he remembers it better than I do. The transition from human to Pokémon caused a little memory lapse…"_

"I can't ask Tim! He wouldn't answer me." I retaliated. Suddenly I was once again getting back into my curiosity about Luke and Tim. Even if I wanted to back out now it was far too late.

"_Just help him out with the Pidove and he might be more open."_ The Yamask thought back and floated forward, leading us along the trail only he knew.

After only another minute of walking, Len, Luke, and I came up to a small clearing where Tim the Emo was. He was looking around for something fervently and when he spotted Luke, his face broke into a relived smile. "Luke! Where were you…?" he spotted me and soured. "What's she doing here?" He growled.

Luke the Yamask hovered forward and seemed to be communicating with telepathy, but I couldn't hear anything said between the two. I shrugged and returned Len to his Pokéball so that I wouldn't lose him. I stared at the human and Pokémon talking with each other, only hearing one side of the conversation.

"I've got it all taken care of. See?" Tim pointed to a Pidove bound to his shoulder with ropes covering its wings and beak and holding the claws to his shoulder. It looked like the bird was almost in an old-time, rope-version straightjacket.

Luke floated forward and said something, undoubtedly defending his actions.

Tim gave me a death glare and turned away from his Pokémon/friend. He pointed at me and said, "I've got this all under control. Luke was overreacting, so you can go back to where you came from."

I was tempted to take his offer. I didn't want to help him and if he tied up his Pokémon and called it good, then I could care less. And yet Luke's plea was so fervent. I needed to know what was wrong with the bird and why it was tied up. I fought my aversion to him and said, "So, what's wrong with the bird? Why is it tied up?"

"What, you a bird Pokémon expert or something?" he shot back.

"I want to be, I'm in this contest!" I shot back and marched up to his tied bird on his shoulder. "So what's wrong with it?" I frowned as I saw strange wet marks around the Pidove's eyes. Had it been crying? Did Pokémon cry?

Tim gave a huge sigh that lasted several seconds. He gave me a glare and said, "It's been rowdy and paranoid… Luke says he can't speak to it… As in, it's not rationally thinking. It won't talk back and I've tied it up so it won't fly around into trees and stuff."

I looked at the Pidove again and grimaced. "Has it been crying for a while now?"

Tim nodded with a hard stare. "It cries and drools. I can't figure out what is wrong." He looked at the bird and said, "I thought it was just jumpy in the beginning, but now it's acting like it's being attacked by something."

"It might be sick." I said. That was a pretty good cover-all excuse. "Have you taken it to the Pokémon Center?"

He gave me a murderous look. "I can handle it."

"Then go ahead and bring back a bound bird to Skyla! She'll see that you are really great with bird Pokémon!" I retorted.

That got a reaction out of him. The emo-man glanced at the bird hyperventilating on his shoulder and nodded to himself. "Pokémon Center it is!" he marked forward through the woods without giving me or Luke the Yamask a second look.

"He's stubborn…" I mumbled to myself.

"_Good idea, I didn't think of using that to make him go to the Pokémon center!"_ Luke thought to me. _"Let's follow him!"_

I sighed. How long was this going to take? I had a peaceful lake to stare and despair at… never mind, maybe finding out about Tim the emo and his ghost Pokémon would be a better idea. It would distract me from my seemingly hopeless future and my apparent lack of skills. I whispered the Luke, "So, is it weird to be a friend's Pokémon now?"

The ghost kind of laughed. _"Kind of, but this way I can stay with him… I don't like fighting Pokémon battles, but I guess I have to since a Pokémon is a battling creature."_

I nodded, the relationship between the two starting to come out clearer. "So, he is your best friend?"

"_I think our dads were best friends, but I can't remember all that well… You'd have to ask him."_

I shrugged and continued to walk along through the woods. The town of Mistralton was closer than I thought, as we stepped on the concrete sidewalks not a minute after I heard Luke's thoughts. I marched on after the emo that seemed to think that he was all that and couldn't help loathing just a tad. He certainly didn't want my help and he almost acted like going to the Pokémon center was **his** idea. But Luke's child-like loyalty seemed to make me want to see what happened to the Pidove. _Why couldn't Tim be the ghost and Luke the human? _I regretted thinking that. It was a terrible wish. Bad Utopia, bad!

Luke and I entered the Pokémon center a little after Tim and followed him up to the counter where the Nurse Joy (I swear Nurse Joys are going to take over the world with their strange identicalness!) stood.

"Nurse, this Pidove has been acting peculiar, could you see if it's sick? I'm in the Gym Leader contest and the bird is the gym's property." Tim said smoothly.

The pink haired nurse nodded and took the bound bird off of Tim's shoulders and walked back to the clinic behind her, an Audino following her. Tim whipped around and said, "Ok, solved. You can go back now."

"_But she-"_

"I want to see what's wrong with the bird, ok?" I said, cutting off Luke's telepathic protest in my defense. I crossed my arms and gave him a look that said 'prove me wrong'.

"Fine." He glared at me and sat down on one of the waiting room chairs. I sat a seat over from him and waited.

I couldn't come up with how to start asking about his history with Luke, or even any history of him at all. I could have no trouble thinking of the time when he sent his Archen snapping after me, him giving me a 'bird' in the forest, and his insults. Oh, I could almost quote all of the insults he had said to me! How could I even start to think of how to act nice to him?

Tim didn't offer any conversation either, so we just sat in silence glaring at each other through the corners of our eyes. Luke hovered between us and seemed a little nervous that we weren't getting along. The Yamask tried to offer up a berry for the three of us to eat, but both Tim and I refused to touch food.

After twenty minutes of boring silence and me going out of my mind trying to think of how to ask about Luke, Nurse Joy came back out of the clinic with a grave look on her face. The pink-haired nurse beckoned us forward to talk with her privately.

Tim and I stood up and came to her. She took us to a small patient room and said with a terrible expression, "I'm afraid there is nothing I can do for the Pidove…" she admitted.

Timmy-Tim-Tim scoffed. "Come on, this is a Pokémon center! Pokémon can be brought back after using the move explosion. Who's to say that you can't sure a simple skittish Pidove?"

Even though he did have a point, I could just feel that the situation was graver than what we both thought. "What do you mean, Nurse?"

Joy sighed and said, "I'm afraid the Pidove has a disease that no cure can be found for… have you two heard of rabies?"

My heart sank to my stomach and Tim's resolve faltered.

"I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do… I'll tell Skyla of the bird if you don't wish to." She said with a small, hopeful smile. "Is this the test where you have to take care of a bird for a day? I've seen several trainers so far, but none have had a disease this bad…" she stopped and apologized. "I'm sorry. I will send word to Skyla right away."

She left the room, leaving Tim, Luke, and me in the same room. Well, until Tim stood to his feet and ran out like a deranged Bouffalant.


	15. Emotional Support

I was caught off-guard, and yet I somehow knew that Tim would do that. One moment he was sitting on a white and cleaned (probably with a toothbrush, it was so stinking clean!) chair, and the next second he ran out to the room. I knew that he usually ran off when he was having a temper, but his situation… He had done everything right and yet the Pidove he had caught was diseased. It wasn't his fault, it was just bad luck.

I looked at Luke who was floating by my head instead of racing after his trainer/friend. "Aren't you going to follow him?" I asked the ghost.

"_We both are!"_ The ghost thought to me in his sweet, childish way. _"I can't help him, seeing me at a time like this makes him even worse. He needs a person…"_

"Look, I hate him and he hates me, so why am I expected to help him even more? I did what I could for the Pidove…" I said, once again hesitant to help a complete and utter jerk. I wanted to ask why seeing Luke would be an even worse thing for him, but held back. I still needed a purpose to try to understand a jerk emo-man.

The Yamask floated up to my face and pleaded like a puppy. _"Please. I don't know of anyone else to ask help from. No one else in this challenge knows him, and he's been pretty distant from others. You are the only person that I can think to help him. He's my friend."_

I stared at the ghost and felt pity again. I had to stop letting the same factor influence my ideas, but it was still so sad for Luke… dying so young and such… each time I listened to his pleas, I felt like I was doing a final wish for him. But he was a ghost Pokémon, he was already dead and his soul lived on in a Pokémon's body. Technically I shouldn't have to feel like I was doing a final wish of his… and yet I did.

I gave in to the puppy eyes and pity once more. "Fine, but what can I do? I don't even know how to help him."

"_He's sad that the Pidove is dying… that it will die. I was his friend and I died to… Can you see now?"_ the ghost Pokémon thought.

Actually I did. I stood to my feet and got out of the room as quickly as I could. Thanks to his friend/ghost person thing (I still don't know how to think of Luke in relation to Tim), I had a clearer idea of what to say. But first I had to catch him.

I sprinted to the lobby and asked a person waiting for their Pokémon to get healed, "Hey, did you see a kid with black hair and light skin run past here?"

The woman nodded and pointed to the door. "He ran out into the woods. Is he…?"

"Thanks," I answered and ran out the door with Luke floating behind me. I held the door open for the Pokémon, but he went right through it. _Right…_ I keep on forgetting the things ghost Pokémon can do. I looked at the woods and asked the ghost, "So, where has he gone before? Or, I mean, where would he go now do you think?"

Luke patted his chin and thought to me, _"I'm not sure. If he went to the woods he could be in any number of places… I'd imagine he'd want to be in a private place… Hey! I think he might have gone to a huge tree we found while looking for the Pidove."_ The ghost waved to me and called out, "Yamask mask!" but I heard through telepathy, _"Follow me!"_

I raced after the ghost in the afternoon/evening light. Wow, I really had lost track of time! It could have been getting close to five or six… _how much time did I spend in self-wallowing again? Oh well, can't get that time back, right? _We ran (er, floated in Luke's case) into the woods at a surprising rate. I surprised myself for going so fast_. Maybe it was because I left my backpack with Gregor…_ _Landorus! I need to get my Pidove back so it can like me!_

And yet, helping Luke and Tim captured my mind. I wanted to know about their past. I didn't like Tim in the slightest, and Luke was a sweet ghost, but something deeper pulled at my attention. They had a past before this contest, a life that was probably much more exciting and different than mine. Maybe the fact that Tim had very few friends was another factor. I had very few real friends before coming here… I blamed the sympathy cared Luke played on my sudden interest in their pasts.

Luke disappeared through a tree and I swerved so that I didn't try to do the same. That would not be fun! I already ran into a tree once today and was not about to do it again!

We came to a huge tree soon after and I stared at it while I caught my breath. It was so thick and wide… I was highly impressed. There was no way I could hug it all the way around (if I was a tree-hugger that is), maybe it would take four people to hug the tree to reach each other's hands. The tree was tall as well. There could have been hundreds of Pidoves perched in the branches if I could have seen into the upper branches. Some of the leaves were falling off, colored bright yellow.

But enough about the tree, I still felt like I needed to help Tim and his emotional problems. I started walking around the tree and saw his black clad shoulders and black head of hair leaning against the trunk of the tree. He was certainly in a slump.

I nodded to Luke and walked up to him very slowly. Even with my stealth (sadly I still wasn't a ninja), he turned a little and glared at me. He took a little before saying, "What do you want?"

I could hear the emotion on his voice. I gulped and tried to come up with a better excuse than I really had. _Your ghost friend convinced me?_ No, that couldn't work. "Uh, I was just curious… I'm sorry about the Pidove… rotten luck…" I mumbled.

He turned away from me and wiped at his face. Had he been crying? He replied, "Just go away, I don't want your pity!"

I smirked. If staying would annoy him, then I would go ahead to do it. I sat down and stretched noisily against the tree trunk. "Fine, but this is a nice tree." I said lamely. Well, what else was I supposed to say?

Luke was still hanging back from Tim and me, so I had no sweet little ghost to talk to while in the uncomfortable company of Tim the emo.

I sighed and asked, "So, are you scared that you might get the rabies from the Pidove?" Actually, now that I thought about it, that would be a really bad thing. I mean, dying from a contest that was supposed to determine Skyla's next hire? That would suck! I turned my body towards him and said, "It didn't peck you, right?"

Tim didn't look at me. "I guess I should ask for a rabies vaccination later…" he mumbled.

_Ok, so he wasn't worried about that. What bugged him again? Oh, right, Luke. _"So I guess the Pidove was a fluke?" I asked. "I mean, that must really suck to have a Pidove die… and Luke…"

Tim wheeled on me, his face a picture of pure anger. He leaned forward and yelled, "What did Luke tell you?" _Strange, his dark eyes seemed kind of brown like mine…_

I backed away a little and said, "Nothing much. I know that he was a friend of yours…" Tim's expression sank from anger to sorrow. I said gently, "I have no idea what it must feel to be you."

Tim sat down and stared up at the sky, his profile visible to me. He closed his eyes and admitted, "Everything I touch dies…"

I snickered a little. "Yeah right…" I muttered.

"This is serious!" he said angrily. "Everything I touch dies! My mom died when I was young. My pet Purrloin died a year after ward, Luke died… and now the Pidove that's supposed to help me in future rounds is dying!"

"Ooh!" I said with heavy sarcasm. I turned to him and said very seriously, "Look, last time I checked only a legendary Pokémon can kill something by merely touching it. Something doesn't die because," I crossed my eyes and waved my hands in a circle and said with great taunting in my voice, "the Great and Powerful Tim," I stopped acting weird and continued my sentence normally, "touched something. It's just life, not your own personal curse on living things around you."

Tim stared at me with a mixture of confusion and bewilderment. No wait, those were the same thing. Ok, he was just confused at me. But that I could handle. He noticed his own confusion and gave me a glare to keep me at bay. "You just don't understand…"

I tried to put all of my people skills to work and replied, "No, I don't. I don't know how you feel because I've never had to deal with something like that. And I certainly don't understand your coping methods." Strangely, I could feel my firm resolve against Tim melt a tiny. Just a little, I was still sore about his flipping me a finger and letting his Archen tear into me. I sighed and said, "But there's no stinking way you could have somehow caused that death around you. I mean… It's more Skyla's fault than yours that a Pidove in her care got some sort of fatal disease."

He pulled his legs up to his chest and hugged them, his chin on his knees. "Don't insult Skyla." He said with a hint of malice.

"Fine, but shouldn't you complain to her about that? I mean, you can't give her a bird that's in the Pokémon center and contagious with a fatal disease." I paused and said, "So why do you like Skyla so much?"

Tim didn't answer me, didn't even look at me. Fine, he could keep his secrets.

"Ok, so, you out of your tantrum yet?" I said, as if ready to head back to the lake with Gregor, the sleeping Bob the builder, and Theo the Pidove. Actually, I really needed to head back. I needed to be around the Pidove to earn its trust and get a sign. I needed to figure out its nature for extra points. Well, whatever 'points' meant.

Tim glared at me, still defensive and unwilling to say anything nice. "I wasn't in a tantrum." He growled.

"Sure, you just stormed off and had a good cry after you found out about the Pidove." I corrected him.

He raised his head and gave me a dead-on glare. "Stop acting like you know better!" he shouted.

Whoops, I offended him. Maybe I went too far. I held up my hands, but Luke came to my rescue. The ghost appeared in front of me and held up his ghostly hands just like I was. Luke thought to both of us, _"Don't be mad, Tim, she's just trying to help…"_

Tim scoffed and said ruefully, "Why do I have a feeling that her being here was your idea?"

The ghost blushed a little and scratched its head. _"I don't know…" _Luke thought cutely, as if trying to act innocent of eating the last cookie with crumbs of it all over his face.

I smirked a little. "So, is it ok if I ask about you two… you know, when you both were humans?" Yeah, I was still curious. Why must I be plagued with such curiosity? Why?

Tim glared at me around Luke's floating form, obviously not pleased. "How about you mind your own business from now on? This is a competition and making friends will only cause heartache. So go back to your Pidove and leave my problems alone." He said and got to his feet. He looked at the ghost Pokémon and said, "Come on, Luke, we have things to do."

The Yamask glanced at me, and then looked back at Tim. _"Ok."_ He thought to both of us, then added secretly to me, _"Don't worry, I think he'll tell you eventually. I personally think he's a little better after you talked to him." _he floated up to me and tugged at my hair playfully. _"Bye!"_ Luke thought and waved before disappearing and reappearing right at Tim's shoulder. The two walked off, leaving me by a huge tree in the forest.

I sighed and tried to remember everything Tim said to piece together to puzzle of him. Did he say his mother had died? Yes… yes he did. Did he have a father? Yeah, Luke said something about fathers being friends… but where were they from? How did Luke die and become a Yamask? I sighed and figured that there were way too many missing pieces to complete the puzzle on my own. But I had to say, today was pretty eventful for being a boring babysitting job.

I kind of hoped in spite of myself that Tim could get some lenience for getting a diseased Pokémon. If the Pidove was switched out, it would still take a while for emo man to get the new bird to like him. There was no hope for that diseased Pidove and I felt bad. If **I **had caught a fatally wounded Pidove, I would have cried too. Maybe Tim and I weren't so much at odds with each other…

_Nope, we still were enemies! We had to be!_ Didn't I see that look of snubbing back when he walked off? He said he didn't want to make any friends because this was a competition where you have to fight others to get the job.

_Wait…_ I jumped to my feet and looked around the forest. "How'd I get here again? And how do I get back to the lake?"

…

_Lan-DORUS!_

**A/N: Just a little disclaimer, I don't own Pokémon. I only own the OCs of Utopia, Gregor, Tim, Luke (and other Pokémon personalities), Malcolm, Bob, Jamie, and others that might show up in the contest. Secondly, I have been becoming a fan of Fullmetal Alchemist, so I've noticed a hint of Al in Luke the Yamask. Tim isn't an equivalent of Ed though; Ed's too spastic to be compared to Tim. However, I can honestly say that Tim is becoming a mix of two Atoshi (my original story) characters… weird…**

**I understand that it's been 15 chapters and only two days in the storyline, so just bear with me :) Just a reminder, Utopia's B-day is tomorrow story-time-wise. *grins***


	16. Let's Eat

Mistralton wasn't a big town and the forests around it weren't supposed to be that big… and yet I had managed to get lost. Yup! Leave it to Utopia!

I stared at the huge tree I stood by and tried to think of which direction I had come from and where I should go to find Gregor the hero-nerd and Bob the Builder and the lake. I was terrible at directions and my Town Map was in my backpack… _Landorus!_ I cursed again. Why'd I leave my backpack at the lake?

I glanced at where Luke and Tim had walked off and figured that it would be better to ask for help or follow them than wandering around by myself. Sure I had my trusty Pokémon on me at all times, and Pebbles could probably flew around to find the lake, but they couldn't be expected to do everything for me! I mean, I've already ridden on the shoulders of Gregor and Malcolm so far, and it's only been two days. I need to show that I'm a capable girl that deserves to be in Skyla's all male gym. I need to do this myself… and yet I wanted to ask help from Luke instead of my own Pokémon… I reasoned that it was because he was one of those Pokémon you could understand. Not to mention that he was a friendly ghost of a human.

I swallowed at hint of pride and ran after the boys. "Hey! Luke, can you help me get back to the lake?" I called out. After a short sprint, I saw Tim standing, back towards me. Luke floated by his head and seemed a little uneasy.

Tim the emo spun around and yelled, "You are **pathetic**!" I could have sworn I saw steam rolling out of his ears! Obviously he was annoyed with my incompetence. Maybe helping him by the huge tree hadn't really changed him. _Fine,_ I thought with a mental pout.

Luke closed his huge red eyes in apology and floated over to me. _"Sure, I can help you find your way."_ The ghost thought sweetly. Once again, he proved to be a sweet friend that I wish I knew when he was alive.

Tim crossed his arms and snorted at me. "Fine, I'll let Luke help you. But stop asking favors of other people, got it? This is the last time I'll help you!" his eyebrows twitched a little in anger as he spun around and stormed off.

I grimaced. "He's a little overemotional today, isn't he?" I said quietly to the ghost.

"_Don't worry about it, he's not being serious."_ Luke thought and tugged on my hair. _"Sorry for getting you lost, I'll help you find your way back. I'm a really good directional person… or, uh… Pokémon."_ He thought and started leading me the opposite way Tim was storming off to. After a little bit of walking, Luke thought in a sort of solemn tone, "_I think one reason why Tim doesn't like you is that Larvesta you have… did you get it from a breeder?"_

I nodded even though I knew he wasn't looking at me. "Yeah, I got Sundazzle the Larvesta from Eugene Kwester, Malcolm's cousin." I stopped and asked suspiciously, "So why would a Larvesta tick him off?"

Luke started floating backwards, facing me while still leading the way. His large red eyes seemed less playful this time. "_Maybe if you knew a little about Pokémon habitats… if you knew that you could come up with a tentative explanation… I mean, look at what Pokémon I am."_ He clasped his large dark hands and thought, "_But enough of that, Tim should really tell you. I mean, if you could talk your Larvesta then that might give you a clue. Pokémon have instincts and some Pokémon even can sense the world around them while still in the egg…"_ The Yamask slapped himself on the forehead and said, "_Argh, I can't stop thinking about it…"_

I didn't know how to react to that. I was only hearing hints of something and I had no idea how to put it together… how did my Pokémon connect Tim to me in a bad way… and was Eugene even involved as well? What was going on with their life and past? And Sundazzle's egg? I could just taste the full story, but not fully eat it (if you get the food metaphor).

Luke turned around and started floating in the forward direction, his thin and ghostly back to me now. "_We are almost there."_ He thought in an attempt to sound friendly and carefree once more.

His half-hints were only getting me more interested and more inquisitive to their past. I could hardly stop thinking about it with all the new hints Luke had just thought to me. Pokémon habitats, Yamasks and Larvestas, and even a hint of Eugene Kwester being involved in it as well? He might be associated because he gave me that egg… was Luke implying that Eugene took a Larvesta egg and Sundazzle knew if from being in tuned with the outside world while in her egg? Wait, that was too farfetch'd, right?

Before I knew it, Luke led me back to the lake. I sighed at the sight of the beautiful landscape, my questioning thoughts forgotten for a brief moment. Sometimes lakes were simply the most beautiful things to stare at… I realized that there were no people or Pokémon around it. It was a simple picture of scenery without a terrestrial or avian being in sight… I could take a picture right now and stare at it for long periods of time to escape from my problems… Wait, no one was there?

"Landorus! Gregor and Bob are gone, along with my Pidove!" I face palmed. "Crap, crap, double crap… I should have… I dunno, my bag and supplies and my Pidove… there all gone!" I looked back at the ghost Pokémon and asked, "This is the right place where you first found me, right?"

The Yamask nodded and put his large hand to his chin. _"Hmm, maybe they went back to Mistralton…"_

"Ok, that's a good guess. I need to find Gregor…" I said out loud, though on the inside I was starting to question whether Gregor was as nice as he portrayed himself to be… _Maybe he stole it… my precious_… I couldn't resist thinking a classic line from a movie right there. But it was true; my stuff was no longer at the place I left it. I had to find the two geniuses (that made a prototype of the dowsing machine) to see what they did to my Theo.

"_Come on, I'll show you back."_ Luke said and giggled in a childish way.

"How old are you?" I asked teasingly. Seriously, he acted like a young kid and it was cheering to be around his sweet innocence.

"_Eleven was when I died, and it's been a few years since then… so about fifteen?"_ he giggled and admitted, "_But Tim says that I still act like an eleven-year-old."_

I smirked a little. "You can't be as old as me! Well, as old as me now… Tomorrow I'll be older than you then."

The Yamask's eyes sparkled, but he didn't think anything on that topic. He simply waved to me and began to escort me back to civilization. I could swear that he was amazed at the news of my birthday. If he was going to get me something for my sixteenth, I hoped it wasn't his mask. His mask on his tail was still creepy… Not as creepy as Ole's smile, but still up there in the creepy scale.

The trip went by uneventfully, as in Luke decided to keep his thoughts to himself and I was busy thinking about any possibility of Gregor snapping and becoming an evil bad guy that stole Pidoves and clunky backpacks of ignorant girls… And by the time I started rationalizing with myself that my first encounter with said Gregor was a sort of a reveal to his true, sneak-up-behind-you-and-cover-your-mouth sort of person normally, we were back in the now familiar town of Mistralton.

And thankfully hero-nerd and his grease monkey friend were waiting at the Pokémon center. Gregor spotted me and waved to me with one hand, in the other hand was my backpack. So he was a nice person still. _That's good._ Bob saw me and waved his arms as well, but even with that movement, the Pidove on his helmet snoozed away. For some reason I wished I had caught that Pidove instead of Theo and his rowdy nature.

I glanced back at Luke the Yamask and grinned. "Thanks, Luke. Hope to see you later." I said and meant it.

The Yamask yanked on my hair and thought back. "If I don't see you tomorrow, I wanted to say happy birthday."

I patted his head. "That's very sweet of you."

He turned a little red and swiftly disappeared into the air. Ghost Pokémon use invisibility in sometimes unfair ways. _But hey, they are dead souls given a second chance at life as a Pokémon, right? Oh well. _

I turned back to the troop and walked forward to meet them. Gregor grinned at me and handed by clunky backpack back to me. "Hey, we were getting worried about you. You were gone for a while and we were getting hungry. Join us?" he finished as an invitation.

A supper with genius guys? Hey, why not? Gregor was very helpful, so why turn him down? I nodded just as Theo fluttered onto my head. I looked up at the bird and said with a hint of sarcasm, "Let me guess, birdie, you had a great time without me?"

Bob giggled at my tone of voice. "Actually he was a little flustered when you left. But other than that he had a great time with Gregor's Pidove on the lake. At least that's what Gregor said, righ', friend? I was sleepin' all the time so I didn't really know."

I nodded and took the falconry-devoted t-shirt to my arm for the bird to perch on. I liked it when I could see the bird. _Hey, I could feed the Pidove something nice in the Pokémon center and earn friendship points!_ "Ok, let's eat."

The guys and I marched into the Pokémon center, ready to get some food in our bellies (not to mention a visit to the bathroom for me) and relaxing time with our birds before the gym underlings took them back. I couldn't help thinking of what Tim could do with his situation, and why I cared about it.

We were the only people in the center main floor besides the ever present carbon-copy Nurse Joy and a person at the counter. The person turned around and revealed that she was the strange soothsayer Jamie, a strange look on her features. Then again, when was she ever normal? She waved to me and asked, "Did you help Tim a little today?"

"Woah!" Bob exclaimed. "Wait, what? I thought only Gregor knew of that… well, an' me too because he told me…"

I nodded and stroked my Pidove on my arm. "Yeah, why? Is that a bad thing?" I knew she wouldn't answer me, but it couldn't hurt to ask.

The blonde and pink haired woman (she was in her twenties even if she didn't look it) walked up to me and said quietly, "That's good." Then she walked past to the exit. Once again her role of soothsayer was to be painfully vague.

Bob watched her for a couple extra seconds and said to me in a cautious whisper, "You know that person? She's kinda creepy…"

Gregor nodded slightly. "I agree, she's a very odd person. But you sat with her on the first night, right?"

I nodded, though I wasn't enlightened to talk about her much. She was just so unknown and vague I didn't know what to say about her. She drinks tea and has kooky Pokémon? Nah, they didn't need to know that. "I sat with her. She's been talking with me a bit. I think she and I are kind of in this together since we are two of the three girls here."

"There are only three girls in this challenge?" Bob scrunched up his nose.

Gregor nodded to his friend. "Yeah, the other one's name is Clara the interviewer, remember?"

The grease monkey guffawed and said, "Boy do I feel stupid. Clara hasn't left us alone for a while with our pseudo-fame an' stuff of making the dowsing machine. Her an' her boyfriend have been asking an' asking for an interview with their camera and recording equipment."

_So, the last girl was a girl called Clara, an interviewer. Good, now I could address her by name when I finally gathered up the courage to talk to her._ I smiled and nodded to the stairs. "Shall we eat then?" Whatever Jamie was up to, that wasn't going to be in the front of my mind. I patted my bird in the hopes that I could win him over before the underlings called the birds back. If I couldn't figure out Theo's traits, then oh well. I could always get bonus points elsewhere. I was relaxed and didn't want to lose the feeling!


	17. Timothy Feldman

**A/N: Heads up, this chapter is in a different perspective. This also means there will be a different set of vocabulary according to the person's point of view. The description doesn't say "Rated T for Tim" for nothing. **

…

**Tim's POV**

Stupid! Everything felt stupid! That Pidove that I worked so hard to capture ended up being a dying one… I swear death follows me everywhere! And what's the purpose of it all? Some people say it's to make you a better person in the future, but they all tend to be those melodrama types that always see a silver lining. And I can't stand optimists. And then Utopia comes along and tries to help… I didn't need her help one bit. And I didn't cry either!

I grumbled as I navigated through the Mistralton forest. I couldn't help but be wary. I don't like forests; it always feels like a Pokémon will jump from a tree on top of me or something. If you've known me, you would know that I always prefer caves and dirt to greenery. How can a lake and trees compare with the vast mountain range and natural labyrinth of caves?

But now I was just thinking of things to get my mind off my stupid life. I can't seem to find anything to like here. Sure, I'm in a contest under my favorite gym leader, but that's the only joy I can find in it. I only started this damned contest because my dad knew I needed to stop moping and start training Pokémon. Sure,** whatever**!

I glanced around the trees, waiting for Luke to get back. I always let him wander around when I wasn't in a serious mood, but it always made me worry if he was fighting some Pokémon with a type advantage. I knew he could take care of himself, but still…

I spotted a group of trainers in the forest and stopped my marching. If dad would be happy I won the contest, then I'd better play as hard and calculating as I can. Then maybe he could stop criticizing me and start acting like a real, concerned father.

The trainers were an African American couple with huge bags strewn around them. The girl was holding out a microphone and the guy was holding an amateur's camera over his shoulder aimed at a person out of my sight. The girl asked in an annoying reporter voice, "So, what does the cousin of Eugene Kwester say about raising Pokémon to love you?" then, held out the microphone for a response.

Of course I knew who was being interviewed without even seeing. That stupid cousin of Eugene, Malcolm! He obviously didn't know very much about Pokémon and was only riding off the fame of his relatives. I didn't care to hear what he said, so I turned around and marched off, not caring if I was heard or not.

Seriously, celebrity relatives make me sick. They are simply famous because someone in their family tree has a well-known name. They didn't make their fame like the Kwester trio, and Malcolm seemed to be a pretty good illustration of that. I respected the trio and all; I just couldn't help feeling annoyed with Eugene though. But enough of that, I needed to find a gym trainer and inform him of the situation…

_That had been Utopia's suggestion, wasn't it?_ I rolled my eyes. _No, that was just common sense._ I paused and wondered what was up that weird girl. Not only did she have a Larvesta, but she and Luke seemed to get along well. And somehow she got it in her head that I needed to be comforted. I didn't need her help one bit! She was a person in the pretender's (my nickname for Malcolm) favor and was equally ignorant.

Luke appeared by my head and smiled with his eyes. "Hey, guess what?" he asked like he was in grade school again.

I tried to keep a straight face at his excitement. "You found a Lilipup and named it Fido." I deadpanned.

"_No, tomorrow is Utopia's birthday! Isn't that great?"_ Luke thought to me while spinning in air.

"So?"

Luke floated closer and thought fervently, _"Don't you think you should give her a present or something. It is her birthday and all."_

"Look, if you like her so much, why don't you get her a present then?" I asked back with the same emotion as before. Why was Luke so fond of that girl? "I'm not about to celebrate her birthday. I hate her, you know that!"

The ghost of my friend gave me a pleading look that he knew worked sometimes. _"But she did help you… the least you can do-"_

"She didn't help me; you brought her for no apparent reason to get involved with my strategy of winning this damn challenge." I shot back. "That look won't work on me this time." I didn't want to admit it, but that was an interesting piece of information. What I would do with it I didn't know, but it was interesting. Luke seemed to like her for some odd reason. He even held back when fighting her Palpitoad. What was with him?

The Yamask sighed. _"Fine, let's keep going to the gym then."_

I felt a little sorry for being so blunt to him, so I patted his little head. We continued to cut through the forest as a short cut. _At least I know the directions around here unlike that Utopia._

I glanced at Luke as we made our way through the woods. It was still a weird concept of training a Pokémon that used to be your friend, but after a few years the strangeness had dulled. Luke sometimes told me that being a ghost Pokémon was fun. He could become invisible and go through walls just like a fantasy superhero or something. Understanding Pokémon and communicating to humans through telepathy was a plus as well for him, and that being in a Pokéball -a luxury ball at that- wasn't all that bad.

And yet he couldn't ever become a Pokémon trainer since he himself was a Pokémon. He wouldn't ever have the same relationship with his parents again now and his possessions defaulted to me and his family. He was taken out of the human world and put into a Pokémon's perspective, a fighting creature. He could use powers that could hurt other Pokémon (and those weren't necessarily fun things for him). But at least he was ok with being a Pokémon of mine, though I only directed his fighting when needed or he didn't know what to do. I was a pretty good strategist if I do say so myself.

I mean, the plan to get Archen out of Malcolm's Braviary's claws in the Sky Drop attack, I came up with that while training a grounded flying-type Pokémon. But the story of my Archen is a long one, and I didn't care to reminisce. **I** knew how I got my Archen and no one else needed to.

"_Are you ok?"_ Luke asked in his innocent way. I questioned once again if his spirit stayed eleven years old or if he could still mature as a different species.

"Just fine." I replied.

He continued, _"So…"_ he seemed to want to say something, but held back and finished his thought with something clearly different, _"What do you think is going to be next in the challenge?"_

"If I knew or really needed to know, I'd find a soothsayer. Just as long as I can get a Pidove that isn't dying and the next step doesn't involve the Pidoves, I'll be able to make it just fine."

"_Hey, why don't you fly on Siggy? We could get places a lot quicker."_ He floated in a circle to somehow demonstrate his point.

_Because flying takes away chances of finding people and trying to find out what they are planning. My dad just wants me to win so that I can be a normal Pokémon trainer again, so I'll do whatever I can to win so that he won't think I'm a useless child._ I thought. But Luke already knew that. So why was he asking? "You know why… besides, Siggy was your Pokémon, so I still don't like using him all that much."

I didn't like nicknames all that much; they seemed to baby fighting monsters into the name of a powerful pet. My two original Pokémon didn't have nicknames. They went by their species name and seemed to take their job of fighting seriously. Archen has a lot of heart and skill for being a fossil previously, and Cryogonal pulls its weight when it isn't in danger of evaporating. I thought it was a cool and rare Pokémon when I first captured it, but now it's just a fragile Pokémon. Then Luke happened and I gained him and his Pokémon by his own wish.

Even though I have a small team, I couldn't figure out what other Pokémon I could add to the permitted size of six. My current Pokémon had so many memories behind them it felt wrong to add a new one to the team. But hey, I was a trainer and I could have as big or small of a team as I liked. I didn't have to become the Pokémon champ, just prove I wasn't a disappointment.

After all of my thinking and walking (which can take up a lot of time), Luke and I emerged close to the gym. I grimaced as I noticed that I had to walk around the fence instead of simply walking forward. All of my fancy navigating didn't give me a crap-worth of lead. I thought of climbing the thing, but a twirl of barbed wire circled the top.

_Oh heck, what was Siggy for anyways?_ I pulled out the Pokéball and opened it, the flash revealing a large Pokémon (around 4' 07" if you really needed to know) that looked more like a living painting than a creature. This was Siggy the Sigilyph, my alternative flying Pokémon that was technically Luke's. I knew it looked thin and fragile, but this avianoid Pokémon could carry a full-grown man either by having the person sitting on top of its head or by its tiny comb-like hands holding a trainer.

I simply tugged on its tail a little, a sign that Luke had first taught Siggy. I held onto the tail tightly as the guardian Pokémon began floating upwards with its fragile-looking wings flapping powerfully. I was up and over the fence in less time it would have taken to walk around it. Pokémon could be useful for jumping the rules.

Siggy set me down gently on the asphalt and I returned him with a small grin. Siggy wasn't a Pokémon that needed a whole lot of encouragement, it was a stable Pokémon. Luke floated by my head and seemed to smirk as if pointing out my inconsistency of using his Pokémon. I ignored the look. _I can change my mind when I want!_

I casually walked up to the gym entrance and hoped that a gym trainer could get the whole matter straightened out and that the nurse really did contact the gym. If she didn't then I'd have to explain the painful revelation.

I found that there were in fact a few workers and pilots still there. One of the mechanics was playing with one of the person-launching cannons, tinkering with the mechanics and such. I didn't care if I was interrupting; I marched up to him and started up a conversation. "So, I had a little problem with my Pidove…"

The person turned around and looked me over. His name tag denoted him as Brady. "Are you Timothy Feldman or Guy Fellow?"

I smirked a little at that ridiculous name. Who in their right mind would be named Guy Fellow? "I'm Tim." I replied. I didn't go by Timothy all that much. Tim was a little quicker to say and informal. But why was he asking if I was someone else? Did another bird have rabies or whatever Nurse Joy called it?

Mechanic Brady stood up from his tinkering and said gravely, "I'm so very sorry about that. I don't know how it happened, but so far two of the birds have been taken in to the Pokémon center and have been found with the rabies virus. We'll give all of the participants a prevention shot as soon as we collect the birds, then make triple sure that the birds that we currently keep don't have it. It's a real embarrassment that this happened!"

I nodded but cut to my point. "So what happens to the usefulness of the Pidoves in the future? Cliff said that they might help in future challenges. Do I try to win over a different bird?"

Brady scratched his neck and admitted, "I'm afraid that there's nothing I can really do about that. This is a bonus round of sorts, so if won't help or hurt your participation so far, but it won't help either." He explained, "The Pidoves are supposed to help a trainer find an item hidden in the forest in future rounds if the Pidove likes the trainer enough, but with this predicament, you just won't have a possibility of extra help. Got it?"

"Yeah," I said. It made sense, but it still sucked that **I** had to get one of the diseased birds. Now I didn't have an opportunity for extra help in the future. But I could do it on my own anyways. "That makes sense. But I thought most cases of rabies were a long time ago, as in eradicated. What Pokémon could have given that disease to the gym birds?"

Brady looked puzzled and shrugged. "I don't know. I'm guessing a Pidove might have eaten an infected Patrat or was bitten by one. Patrats can carry an amazing amount of diseases without being harmed themselves. But I assure you that this shouldn't happen again."

I nodded and turned away. "Ok, I'll be off then." And that was that, the matter seemed so trivial to the gym trainers as if a single Pidove had little value. Sure they were one of the more common Pokémon of Unova, but they were still Pokémon.

If I won this competition I probably wouldn't actually take up the position of gym trainer. I just thought Skyla was an amazing Pokémon expert, but that didn't mean I'd work for her. And this uncaring of Pidoves seemed to convince me further.

Luke seemed a little solemn as we came back into the autumn air. _"It's kind of sad, huh?"_ he thought.

"Yeah," was all I wanted to say back.

After a little pause, Luke thought, _"Hey, should we meet some people that live around here? Maybe if we are nice we can have a home-cooked meal instead of Pokémon center café food."_

It sounded like a good idea if I was the friend-making type. "If you were human I would say go for it. You know the range my people skills."

"_Maybe we can eat with Utopia then."_ Luke thought with a teasing smirk.

Now he was trying to get me to shoot back. Even so, I still felt inclined to ask him what his deal was. "Look, I don't know why you think she's a great person. Why can't you stay focused?" that was another thing that Luke had to give up, any hopes of finding a nice girl to marry in the future. Sometimes I wondered if he still was thinking in the terms of a human.

"Hey, having a good pep talk with your Pokémon?" Luke's reply was cut off by the previously interviewed 'pretender' stepping into our conversation. He had no sense of privacy sometimes!

I wheeled on the red-haired pretender. "What are you doing here?" I asked and noted that he had a perfectly healthy Pidove resting on his shoulder. Lucky bastard…

Malcolm shrugged as if to brush off my hatred. "Hey, I'm just trying to be conversational." He said with a hint of offense in his tone. "Hey, cool Yamask. I haven't seen one in person before." He changed the subject.

At least he knew the species of Yamask instead of saying in ignorance, "who's that Pokémon". I didn't want to say anything back about Luke. It was bad enough that Utopia and that strange soothsayer already knew a little about Luke. I continued to glare at him, unwilling to let up in my hate. "Yeah, well there you go, it's a Yamask. Congrats."

"_He's just trying to be nice,"_ Luke thought to me.

I wanted to snap back at him, but I couldn't reveal to that red-headed famous relative too much about Luke. It was best to keep it secret.

Malcolm grimaced, angry at my blunt refusal to make pleasant small-talk. "So, where's your Pidove?" He asked with a little more coldness. The Pidove perched on his shoulder chirped along with him.

I glared harder if that was possible. "It's complicated."

"Fine, if you want to be all secretive and block all my attempts to be a friend, that's how it will be." Malcolm said with and edge.

_Ooh, I'm shaking in fear_. "I don't need any friendship with a pseudo-celebrity." I spat back.

That got him, and got him good. He ripped a Pokéball from his belt and called out the creature inside quicker than I was expecting. A large Darmanitan stood before me, snorting out smoke from its nostrils and shuffling on its four legs. I had to give him credit for owning a fearsome Pokémon. "Darmanitan use fire punch!" He shouted.

I underestimated his fury. I stepped back and called out Archen. "Archen, Ancient Power." I yelped in spite of myself.

Archen came out of the Pokéball only to get a fierce fire punch to the beak. I cringed along with the bird as Archen flopped to the ground. The fossil bird croaked hoarsely and defiance and flapped its wings at the intimidating fire Pokémon.

My bird then tried to summon up rocks from the ground to hurl them for a super effective move, but the asphalt beneath it didn't budge. Damn! I forgot the terrain as a key battle strategy! "Archen, Acrobatics instead!" I called out direction to my slightly confused bird.

Malcolm actually was a more impressive Pokémon fighter than I originally thought. He heard my order and countered, "Flare Blitz!"

Damnit!

Archen didn't question my order. It gathered up its speed and crashed into the four-foot tall Darmanitan only to get its feathers singed by the inferno gathering up around its opponent. The Darmanitan was ruthless enough to still charge forward wreathed in flames, hitting Archen yet again. It didn't matter if fire attacks were not very effective; Archen still fainted under the sheer force. I grimaced and returned Archen back to its Pokéball.

"What's wrong, emo? Is that the only Pokémon you battle with?" Malcolm taunted with ferocity that I hadn't expected from him. "Is your Yamask too precious to send out into battle, or the rest of your secret team?"

"_I'll take him!"_ Luke thought angrily and floated forward. "Mask!" he shouted out loud.

"Hey, stop right there Luke!" I shouted at my ghost friend. I was not about to let Luke fight a Darmanitan! I tried to stop him, but he became transparent as I reached for him.

"_I can do this."_ Luke thought with a firm nod. _"I still think you went too far with insulting Malcolm, but I'll fight his Pokémon even if I have to use my mask."_


	18. Timothy Feldman Part 2

**Tim's POV**

"_I can do this."_ Luke thought with a firm nod. _"I still think you went too far with insulting Malcolm, but I'll fight his Pokémon even if I have to use my mask."_

"But why is this match so important?" I demanded. I couldn't believe that Luke wanted to face off against a huge fiery Pokémon. I mean, why even try to fight Malcolm? I lost the match if it was a one-on-one. So what made Luke want to try to stand up for me? And he was even willing to go as far as to use his mask? _Wha- why?_

"_I can't bear to see you lose against him a second time."_ Luke thought back valiantly.

I sweat-dropped. "Thanks a lot…" I mumbled. _So it was pity. I've had enough pity for one day!_

Malcolm raised his eyebrow. "Um, were you talking to your Pokémon?"

"Doesn't everyone?" I brushed off his question casually. I was pretty sure most Pokémon trainers talked to their Pokémon whether or not they understood their language. Sure Luke might have been an exception as being a past-human, but Malcolm didn't need to know that. "Fine, I'll let Luke fight. This match will be two-on-two then." Luke was my strongest Pokémon by level so I hoped that he could take care of two Pokémon.

"What about that four-on-four that we left hanging?" Malcolm said, a slight anger back in his tone. "You ran off with Skyla the second she pointed out your rare fossil Pokémon."

Now that was kind of dirty-sounding! "I didn't 'run off' with Skyla!" I protested. Come on, she's the best gym leader in Unova; you can't blame me, can you? I mean, if a near celebrity (a **real **one I stress) showed interest in your Pokémon, how else would a normal person react? "Luke, Get that fire monster with Shadow Ball!" I ordered. I knew that he knew to use that attack already, but I wanted to keep up the illusion of me actually being a trainer to Luke the Yamask. If you didn't notice, I refer to him a lot more by Luke rather than his Pokémon species.

"It's a four-on-four!" Malcolm insisted and called to his Darmanitan, "Flare Blitz again, Darmanitan!"

_Do I ever hate that attack!_ Luke was smart enough to dodge it. His ghost abilities kicked in and he turned transparent, letting the Darmanitan crash forward without hitting a target. Well, I was pretty close, close enough to feel the flames that wreathed the fiery Pokémon.

Luke disappeared and reappeared, using the same technique he had used against Utopia's Larvesta. He brought the shadow ball forward with his hand, smashing the Pokémon close range in the face.

The Darmanitan whimpered from the hit but was far from down. I would guess that the Pokémon was high level as well, though Malcolm's Braviary would have to be technically in the 50s level wise. But he had mentioned (very loudly) that his Pokémon had evolved early. I was dealing with an experienced Pokémon trainer with my rag-tag team; two from the Desert Ruins and two from Twist Mountain.

Luke noted this as well and prepared another shadow ball attack.

"Power Split instead!" I called out. I was studied in Pokémon stats well enough to know that Darmanitan had an amazing attack stat and Luke could benefit from splitting up the attack stats evenly. Luke called back the Shadow ball attack and made eye contact with the ape-like Pokémon. A red aura glowed between the two as the stats were added and evenly divided.

Malcolm didn't seem to be a stats person in his Pokémon battles. "Payback!"

_Damn! A dark-type move!_

Luke floated as quickly as he could up and out of range of the Darmanitan to avoid the super-effective move. Even though Yamasks were typically more defensive, we couldn't risk depending on defense in a high-leveled battle. The Darmanitan ran forward, but reached Luke too late. It could just stare up at Luke with a dog-treeing-a-cat look.

"Now use Shadow Ball!" I had long-range on my side now. And with a raised attack borrowed from Malcolm's own Pokémon, things were looking up on my side of the battle field.

Malcolm was calm about my strategy compared to some other whiny trainers I battled before coming to Mistralton. Some preschooler (_they let them become Pokémon trainers? Seriously?_) had once protested that it was unfair for Luke to float out of reach or become transparent. I didn't give a crap then, but it was always irksome to explain that was a ghost Pokémon's style.

The sphere of shadows crashed into the Darmanitan's Chinese fire-dragon-looking head. The Pokémon reeled from the increased power of Shadow ball, but still wasn't out. This was going to be a painfully long fight, I could just tell… So far his Pokémon had shown three moves: Fire Punch, Flare Blitz, and Payback. As long as he didn't have a long-ranged flamethrower, long range would be the safest.

"Fine, Darmanitan loses." Malcolm called out and returned the beast in a flash of red light. "I can't bear to see my Pokémon faint when they know that they are beat."

So he didn't have long-range attacks. _Good, one down, three to go._ The Pokémon count was even again. I didn't care that he returned his Pokémon before they fainted. I did do that for Luke against Utopia after all. I nodded to Luke as he floated back to my eye level. "Good job, Luke." I congratulated him.

"_That was kind of scary."_ he shivered a little.

"Now you can't fly away." Malcolm proclaimed as his precious Braviary came out for a fight.

"Am I allowed substitutions?" I asked. Cryogonal would have a fun time with this opponent.

Strangely Malcolm nodded. "Sure."

I realized right then that his match was more of getting to know my team for future fights. Now I was just showing off my team and destroying the secret team I had worked for. But as long as I could win this fight I could bear it. I waved Luke back to float by my head as I called out Cryogonal from its dusk ball. The snowflake-like Pokémon waited for instructions, the ice crystals from its mouth waving around to snag a morsel.

Malcolm was surprised at my choice of Pokémon not for type advantage, but for rarity. "How'd you get one of those?"

I couldn't help showing up a Pokémon trainer prodigy with my knowledge. "Cryogonal is a Pokémon that only shows up in the winter-time in Twist Mountain. I waited a long time to find and capture one." Yeah, it did take effort, but it wasn't the best Pokémon. Once again, I was painfully reminded of its melting and evaporating. Once I had to turn down the house thermostat to freezing to find where my snowflake Pokémon had gone.

Despite the fragility of my Pokémon, Malcolm showed a hint of envy. "Nice catch there. I don't know how long it took for Eugene to find one himself. My other cousins haven't found one, just Eugene…" he seemed to snap out of his admiration and became a trainer again. "But Braviary was my first Pokémon, so not even ice can stop him! Braviary! Use Sky Drop!"

That stupid attack again. Oh well, he didn't know that Cryogonal had the ability of levitate and crystals to bind an opponent with. I had mystery on my side. "Cryogonal, use bind!" That ought to throw a wrench in Malcolm's plan!

The large navy blue and red bird flew forward and grabbed up the smaller Pokémon with its claws and climbed skyward. Cryogonal wrapped its long ice crystals around the Braviary's long feathered legs, causing a little bit of damage from the pointy shards.

Now all I had to do was command an ice beam attack and it would be all over, then I cringed. _No, better go with plan B._ "Cryogonal, use Reflect." I called as loudly as I could. That snowflake Pokémon had great special defense, but physical damage made it almost shatter. I needed to make sure it survived the fall if its bind attack failed to prevent the Sky Drop maneuver.

I could hardly tell if my Pokémon had heard me at that altitude. After the Braviary had flown up far enough, it dove back to the ground. I could tell by its flying pattern that it was trying to dislodge Cryogonal from its feet. _Keep it up, Cryogonal!_ I thought.

Braviary slowed in its descent and began to shake at the pesky snowflake Pokémon still holding on with bind. The Sky Drop attack was pretty much foiled. _Ha,_ I wanted to taunt, _every time you use Sky Drop I find a way to counter it!_ But I still didn't know if Cryogonal could hold on its own. "Close range ice beam now, Cryogonal!" I ordered.

"Get that Pokémon off of you!" Malcolm countered hastily.

But it was useless for him. Cryogonal, while holding on Braviary's legs with its ice crystal, aimed an ice beam from its forehead to the nearest part of the bird. Unfortunately for the bird, and even us spectators to watch, the bird got a bad case of frozen nuts. I wouldn't want that happening to me and I could feel a hint of sympathy for the poor frozen bird.

Braviary fainted instantly and Cryogonal politely let the bird free of its ice crystal chains.

Malcolm winced and returned his bird. "That was a dirty hit." He complained.

"It's not my fault where it hit." I corrected him with a shrug. _Now I was ahead!_

The red headed pretender didn't like my answer and called out his third Pokémon. Out from the red flash of light was a fighting-type Pokémon known as Conkeldurr, which kind of looked like a strange human with bulging blood vessels, a huge red nose, a grey goatee, and two pillars of concrete as weapons. I knew that Cryogonal winning against this Pokémon was a shot in the dark.

Malcolm wasn't as keen with politeness now. Before I had a chance to recall my Pokémon, he ordered his Conkeldurr, "Dynamic punch, Conkeldurr!"

Reflect wouldn't help Cryogonal from that kind of raw power. I decided to keep Cryogonal in the fight as long as possible so as to not give up. I had to show that I wasn't going to back down from Malcolm! _He can't get the better of me!_ The best hope I had for Cryogonal was avoidance. Dynamic punch could seriously wound any Pokémon it touched, but it had a 50/50 chance of hitting or missing. "Dodge it!" I directed as quickly as I could.

Thankfully, Cryogonal avoided the sloppily aimed punch. "Ice beam it from behind." I called again.

Cryogonal floated behind the fighting Pokémon quicker than it could react and sent a stream of freezing air at the Conkeldurr.

"You've got it close now, use wake-up slap!" Malcolm called to his Pokémon.

And the Conkeldurr did just that. It turned around and backhanded the snowflake Pokémon hard enough to cause a slight crack in its frozen body. I recalled it before any more damage could be done to my Pokémon.

"Two for two, huh?" Malcolm countered. Two of his Pokémon and two of mine were down. Technically we were tied.

But I had him right where I wanted. "Go Sigilyth!" I commanded.

"_Siggy,"_ Luke corrected.

"Whatever…" I huffed. The rainbow colored Pokémon emerged battle ready… or at least I assumed. I can never tell what a Sigilyth is thinking even though they are psychic Pokémon. I mean, they have no expression and no emotion in their voice. I called out to my Pokémon, "This ought to be easy."

Now Malcolm had seen every of my Pokémon team. It didn't help him in finding a way to defeat a double type advantage for his Pokémon, but now my team was not secret. He nodded as if expecting such a Pokémon. "So, you have Pokémon from the Desert Ruins and Twist Mountain? You wouldn't be an archeologist of sorts, would you?"

_Thank you Captain Obvious!_ "No, you think?" I said with heavy sarcasm. At least he wasn't as thick as Utopia. "Siggy," _ugh, mental cringe,_ "use Psybeam on the Conkeldurr."

"Rock Slide!" Malcolm called back.

_Close but no cigar, pretender!_ The opponent Pokémon tried to summon up boulders from the asphalt just as Archen had done. The results were the same as before: the asphalt rippled a little, but no boulders could break clean and crash into Siggy. The ancient guardian Pokémon sent a concentrated beam of psychic energy at the hulking Conkeldurr, causing it groan in pain.

I smirked in spite of myself. "Forgot about the ground we are fighting on? I expected a little more from a cousin of famous people!" I couldn't help kicking him when he was down. It was just too sweet.

He didn't seem to think it all that funny and rightly so. I just wanted to poke fun at him. "Oh yeah? Conkeldurr, use dynamic punch!" That was a desperate move on his side. He was depending on raw power instead of types or even Pokémon abilities.

Siggy avoided the attack without a word from me and sent a powerful Psybeam at the Pokémon's head. Luckily the Conkeldurr became confused as a result from that attack. It was all over for his third Pokémon now!

Malcolm recognized that fact and returned his Pokémon in defeat. I also returned Siggy and glanced at Luke. "You can take his puffball Pokémon." I said confidently.

Luke nodded and added mentally, _"Ok, but you can calm down now. Your winning and being cocky like that won't earn you any friends."_ Even so, he floated out to the imaginary battle field between Malcolm and me.

"I'm not looking for friends, Luke." I mumbled back. I sighed and watched Malcolm take out his final Pokéball, an ultra-ball at that.

Inside it was the wimpy little Cottonee. _What a waste of an ultra-ball on a girly Pokémon!_ The ball of fluff hovered out to the field, looking as sickly cute as a children's show aimed at young girls. Seriously, I think there might be some current show about a Cottonee since they are so fluffy and popular. I held back any further taunts about his wimpy, girly Pokémon for chivalry's sake. _Yeah, I can be decent when I want._ "Ok, ready for the final round, Luke?" I said louder in order for Malcolm to hear. _Ha, I loved irony at this point. I started out with one Pokémon down, and now I was one up._

Malcolm walked out to his little cotton Pokémon and held it in his arms. That wasn't a battle maneuver… The red-head held out his hand and said with a hint of a smile, "I love my Cottonee too much to put it through a fight I know it won't win. You've got an impressive team of Pokémon, Tim. I respect that."

Now he was back to be-my-friend mode. I gave him a slight smirk anyways. _I won! I beat him in a fair fight!_ Sure he gave up, but that defaulted to me winning.

Luke floated forward and accepted the handshake in my stead, which irked me. First, I didn't want to shake his hand, and second, it was just too friendly of Luke to do that. He was probably even using his telepathy to thank him as well. _Luke you little… I don't need friends, ok?_ I wanted to tell him that right then, but it would be kind of strange in front of someone else.

Malcolm gave the Yamask a strange look and then gave me a concerned look. "Does your Yamask… talk?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it's called telepathy." I sighed and walked forward to intercept my too-friendly friend's ghost. "Ok, Luke, let's get going then."

"_Where to? You don't have any plans, do you?"_ Luke thought with a mischievous grin. _"The very least you could do is at least talk to Malcolm a little."_

_I'm getting a little tired of you trying to get me friends. Maybe I should put you back in the luxury ball…_ I thought grimly.

"Whoa, that is pretty neat! I wish my Pokémon could talk!" Malcolm exclaimed at stared at Luke in fascination. "Hey, can you translate what Pokémon are saying in telepathy too? Like tell me what Cottonee says and stuff?"

Luke nodded and thought to both of us, "Sure I can."

"Ok, ok, battle's over, we should get going." I said, trying to break up the soon-to-be friendly party or what not. I waved to Luke to get going.

The red-head looked at me with a strange grin that seemed to be a hint of amazement or something like that. "Your Pokémon uses telepathy and can translate other Pokémon's speech? That is so awesome. But hey, you can't go yet. I wanted to ask you something."

_Oh the humanity!_ "What?" I snapped back.

"I heard that its Utopia's birthday tomorrow and I was getting together a group of guys to celebrate. I've already got a plan an' everything! So, you in?" he said with flare that I found a little annoying.

I narrowed my eyes and said flatly. "I don't care about Utopia's birthday so you can count me-"

"_I'd like to help."_ Luke thought before I could finish my sentence.

"Out!" I finished. "Have a party on your own, those aren't my things. And Luke… just…"

Luke floated over to me and gave me pouty eyes. _"But can you at least try to make a friend? A party is just what you need to loosen up a little."_

"I do not need to loosen up; I'm just trying to be a trainer again!" I face-palmed and hoped against hope that Malcolm didn't hear it. _Thanks Luke and big fat mouth! Thanks a lot._

And of course Malcolm did hear me and wanted to know more. "What'd you say?" he said in a slightly gentler tone.

"Don't you say anything!" I warned Luke and glared at Malcolm. "You didn't hear anything."

Malcolm smirked a little. "I'm pretty sure I did." He stroked his little Cottonee as if an evil mastermind except with a fluff-ball instead of a Purrloin. "So how old are you again? When'd you start your Pokémon journey, and then give up on it?"

Dammit, he was a perceptive person just when I didn't want it. I simply continued my glare and didn't answer. That was personal stuff and he of all people didn't need to know that about me. Luke thankfully didn't think to Malcolm the answer. At least he understood that this was part of my past and not really flippant conversation.

He held up his hand and said, "Hey, it's cool. I don't mean to be personal." The Pidove on his shoulder fluttered a little to keep its balance and the Cottonee closed its eyes and purred loudly in his other arm. He was acting friendly once more. I didn't know if I preferred it when he was in Pokémon fight mode or in friend mode. Both were equally annoying. Now I knew that calling him on riding on his cousins' fame would piss him off, but other than that he was an outgoing kind of person. I still didn't like him or want to hang out with him.

"Yeah, don't go there, got it? And I'm still against the offer. You can throw a party or what not for Utopia, I don't care." I replied with an edge to my voice. I glanced to Luke who gave me a pouty look. "That goes for you too."

"_But I don't want to without you."_ He thought back.

I shrugged to both of them and turned back to the general direction of Mistralton. "Now if you don't mind I'll be off." I said to the both of them. Now I had an idea of what to do. I would get a to-go meal from the Pokémon center to avoid any other people run-ins and then after the Pokémon were healed, I would go visit Chargestone Cave. Sounded like a good plan to me. Luke hovered by my head as a silent but encouraging sign. He would stick with me. As long as Luke and I traveled together, I didn't need any other friends.

**A/N: And that's the end of Tim perspective for a while. Do you see other characters differently now? Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and alerts so far. :) I much appreciate them!**


	19. Tea Leaves

**A/N: Complete code of symbol uses and the like. Bold for emphasis or author's notes, **_**italics**_** for thoughts, ****underline**** for sarcasm, "blah" for speech, [blah] for text, and *blah* for phone/Xtransceiver dialogue.**

**Secondly, I still do not own Pokémon or else the anime would be a little more like the manga adventures.**

**Utopia's POV**

The rest of the evening was mainly spent with Bob and Gregor, the slight geniuses. Their knowledge wasn't overwhelming though (like one of my online science teachers). When they talked, they didn't use huge words to express themselves and they seemed to make me feel a lot more comfortable in their company.

After eating my fill and feeding my picky Pidove Theo a few berries and seeds, I felt moderately ready to turn Theo back in. I had spent some time with him, though the vast majority seemed to be spent with trying to cheer up an angry and temperamental Tim. Theo was ok with me, but I still didn't know his nature and trait.

I kind of still wondered about Tim and how he was doing, but there were other more important things to think about. I had to get through more long days of Skyla's torture. I had to get in touch with my bird-Pokémon-loving side and pass with flying colors. Wait, where did that phrase come from in the first place? How does flying colors help anything?

Ahem! I still wanted to use my Xtransceiver to call home and tell them that the first two days of camp where going well and why hadn't they told me that I look like an overseas person before and where all of our relatives are. Then I would probably want to teach my Larvesta to talk and then find out how the heck she connected me to the strange past of Tim and Luke. Nah, not really. That was pretty much my to-do list.

"Hey, earth to Utopia." Bob waved his hand in my face. _Darn my spacey moments…_ "Whacha thinkin' about?"

I snapped back into the present and grinned a little. "Hey, just thinking about my to-do list." I stammered.

The grease monkey nodded and ate his last mouthful of Pokémon Center food.

Gregor, finished with his meal a while back, stroked his little Pidove in his lap. He looked at me through his glasses and said, "So, I don't think any of our Pidoves have really given us a sign that Cliff was talking about."

"Yeah, whatever that sign was, Theo and your Pidove haven't done anything different to show that we win friendship points or whatnot…" I paused and admitted, "It could be worse, the birds could be diseased…"

"Diseased? Skyla wouldn't allow that! It's against gym leader regulations." The hero-nerd protested.

I guessed everyone would learn sooner or later. "Tim's Pidove was acting weird and Nurse Joy found that it had a disease called rabies." I shrugged, showing that nothing more could be done about it.

Gregor frowned. "That's a very terrible thing, Utopia. You shouldn't be so flippant about it. I should talk with Cliff the next time we see him. That disease kills!"

I nodded. "I know, but…" I didn't know how to defend myself and I shut up. I looked at Theo pecking distastefully at my scraps on my plate and let my smile fade. I wouldn't want Theo to get that same disease that Tim's Pidove did. _Rabies…_ I gulped and shrugged to the guys I was eating with.

Bob seemed to take Gregor's side. "That is really bad! We'll all have to get shots for prevention now."

Another thing that is lesser known in the Pokémon world is the shots. Sure a kid at the age of ten in overseas nations (and age fifteen here) can waltz off with a Starter Pokémon from a Professor, but there's a lot of shots young trainers have to get before taking off. There's the lovely tetanus shot that saves from lots of infections a young trainer might find, then there are various Pokémon shots that protect against found diseases found in common-day Pokémon. If a Patrat were to bite you, you'd had hopefully be protected from various found viruses found on their teeth or claws. Those shots have saved lives, I'm telling you! But a rabies shot, even though it was part of the normal tirade of shots for the young trainer, can be supplemented by a booster shot.

I wasn't terribly afraid of needles and getting a prevention shot. I actually wanted one to make sure I wouldn't get rabies from Tim's bird… "Ok, ok, I get it…" I admitted.

Suddenly all of our Xtransceivers rang out at the same time. I jumped and examined the device. It was a text from an unidentified number. The message read, [All contestants, this is Cliff. Bring your Pidoves to the Gym and wait for further instructions.] Clear and to the point!

"Hey, did you guys get a text from that one mechanic person?" Bob held out his Xtransceiver.

Another thing about Pokémon trainers, everyone must have a working Xtransceiver. One, parents like to keep in contact, and two, it allows the Unovian Pokémon Trainer Protection branch of the government keep tabs on the current number of trainers in the area, kind of like a census. I wonder if foreigners need a form of an Xtransceiver… _Wow am I spacey!_ "Yeah, I got one." I said after my train of thought.

"It's a better way of letting us know what the next mission rather than hoping everyone will be there at the same time." Gregor said and began punching in numbers. I could only guess what he was doing, if he was replying or what. He held up the device and said, "We'd better save Cliff to contacts so we'll know who is sending us messages in the future."

_Oh, that made sense._ I punched in the commands on the little technological thing so that Cliff's number was saved.

"Sweet! Let's go an' get to the gym then." Bob the Builder exclaimed and jumped up, this time sending his Pidove fluttering in a panic. He chuckled and scooped up the bird and headed for the stairs.

The rest of the trip was a simple, boring trip to the all-familiar gym and handing over of the Pidoves into a host of single cages. I waved to Theo as he went in his own cage. Then Cliff (or was that Brady?) announced that two Pidoves were found with a deadly virus and several nurses (not Nurse Joys, just medical specialists) would be waiting by tables with needles and clean wipes and Band-Aids to give us the prevention we needed.

Everyone was expected to get a shot. I naturally marched to the front and got it over with. The shot was quick and nearly painless and a cute little Audino Band-Aid was placed over the small puncture. I breathed a sigh of relief and stepped back for others to get similar shots and Band-Aids in the arm.

I noticed pretty much everyone was there and now with my shot out of the way I could people-watch. It's actually quite fun, especially with my imagination. There was Timmy-Tim-Tim at the front as well; taking it like a man… or maybe it was more of a robotic-like acceptance. I didn't really care and I didn't see Luke floating around, so my attention went elsewhere.

Bob and Gregor stayed around the middle of the throng of people, maybe nervous of the potential pain. The interviewer Clara and her boyfriend were trying to get out of the shot by filming someone else getting a shot and talking about it on their legit-looking recording set.

Malcolm stood out with his loud voice and happy speeches of his Pokémon. He wasn't showing any fear of the shots or of the injustice of having infected birds to be around. The group around him seemed to eat up his energy and took it for themselves, as in they didn't seem afraid or angry in the slightest.

There were others that I had only seen from far away. I could classify them from sight: Rich Boy (who seemed completely indignant), Sailor (not showing any fear and puffing out his chest), Guitarist (with a guitar on his back at all times), Dancer (with wicked dreadlocks), Backer (otherwise known as male cheerleader), Motorcyclist (another macho person), Harlequin (wearing a fancy, poofy costume and trembling slightly), Jogger (fit and even jogging in place), Ninja Boy (looked too young, but had to be at least fifteen), and a Pilot. All of them were guys, some white skinned and some dark skinned. None of them had my Asian coloring. I guess that kind of singled me out as well…

I scanned the area again and saw the last person I recognized by name. Jamie stood in the back of the group and seemed to be a bit nervous. I shrugged to myself and figured, _what the heck, I've talked with Tim when he was depressed today, why not Jamie and make it completer? _

I tapped her on the shoulder and she seemed to flinch a little. _Was she really scared?_ "Hi," I said with very little words in my head. Where was a mental thesaurus when you needed it?

The blonde and pink haired woman nodded back and avoided my gaze.

"I'm just wondering… did you foresee this happening? I mean, you did say you are a soothsayer…" I lamely tried to make conversation.

She seemed to talk in her normal voice, but her body language didn't match. "Yes, I already saw it in the leaves."

_Heh?_ Now I didn't have an inkling about what she was saying. "Leaves?"

She nodded stiffly. "If you haven't noticed yet, my tea drinking is not merely for pleasure. I use tasseomancy, reading tea leaves if you will."

_Wow, that was a record-breaker for most words said from Jamie!_ "So your random tea parties with your Pokémon are actually you reading the future?" I still didn't know how she could read the future with tea leaves and how that even worked, but if she wanted to talk, I wasn't against that.

She nodded then began to stare off into space.

"So, are you one of the squeamish people when it comes to needles?" I cut the chase.

She grimaced and held out a Pokéball. I jumped back as I thought she was going to fight me. Her Pawniard emerged from the Pokéball and stood in relaxation. Jamie patted the little helmeted head of her Pokémon and said, "Even though I have a Pawniard… yes…"

I could kind of see her logic. Pawniard wasn't the softest Pokémon in Unova… "But that's fine. Everyone is afraid of something." I said. I mean I had a crippling fear of an ice dragon Pokémon; I'm sure most every rational person has a sort of fear of something. _Maybe Jamie __**is **__actually as fragile as she looks._

"You fear the roar carried on the icy wind. That is a rational fear." She said without looking at me.

I sweat-dropped. Maybe she was a better soothsayer than I gave her credit for. "You know that?" I squeaked. Suddenly my attempt at helping a fellow female get a booster shot felt less important than talking with a wise soothsayer.

She gave me a cool stare with her pupil-less green eyes then nodded slowly. She seemed a little scared and I didn't know if she was still thinking about the needles or Kyurem. Both could be pretty fearsome. "You should watch the news in your spare time."

Now she was giving me horoscopes (or was that a fortune cookie?). I could just see it now, "Libra: Star rating; four (positive); Watch what is going on around you, use your sixth sense." _Yeah, thanks for the vague-ness…_ I said out loud back to her, "Um, ok, thanks…"

She returned her Pokémon and stared at the needle booths again. She winced as the rich boy I saw from earlier give a huge show about the unfairness and the pain.

"It's not that bad." I said with as much encouragement I could muster for an older person that was a soothsayer. It was kind of funny how that worked out though. Me, a younger trainer, giving advice to a fortune telling adult… "I've heard that if you do something that takes up your attention that you won't feel the shot as bad. Maybe I could help?"

"You are Utopia…" she whispered loud enough for me to hear.

_Thanks, that makes so-o-o-o much sense!_

Jamie sighed a little and said in a louder voice, "If you want to help, perhaps I could read your tea leaves…"

"Great!" I said happily. I tapped her shoulder to lead her closer to the tables. "Then I'll drink the tea and you can somehow read it while you get a protection shot."

Instead of following me, she stooped down to her backpack on the ground. She took out a sealed teapot that was decorated with the zodiac and astrology symbols. She then pulled out an equally decorated cup and saucer. It was really ornate, a bluish cup with navy and black paintings on the inside and outside. The handle was all swirly and looked like a porcelain cloud in the shape of an 's'. I was really impressed.

Jamie released the seal of the teapot and poured slightly thick tea into the cup about half-way. "Now there is sediment at the bottom of the cup, so don't drink it. Drink the tea in however you wish and finish the cup by swirling the sediment. Then I will read your tea leaves." I was impressed the Jamie could talk so much. Even with prolonged doses of talking her voice was still even and refined. She held up the beautiful cup to me and said with a gleam in her eye, "This tradition was passed down through my family line and the tea has been kept in a thermos to keep the heat. If you want sugar you need only ask."

I nodded and took a sip of the dark tea. It was alright, more of a Jasmine flavor I guessed. Then again, I didn't really drink tea all that often so it could have been any number of other flavors. At least it was strong, not some sort of weakly flavored water. I continued to sip it more for helping Jamie than for the pleasure or the taste. I swore I could taste the debris at the bottom of the cup. Not the best thing I've ever tried…

Before I finished the cup, I pointed to the table. "Ok, just read the tea when you are getting the shot."

She seemed to still dislike the idea, but she and I still walked up to the nurses. I finished the cup and swirled the sediments on the bottom just as she had told me and gave her the cup as the nurse wiped a spot on her arm clean.

Jamie emptied the last of the liquid tea on the ground and poured over the cup with fancy patterns on the inside. I smiled as she received the shot without a flinch. The nurse gave her an Audino Band-Aid like mine and sent her off to get the last people protected.

Jamie walked with me while staring intently at the cup. She muttered to herself things I couldn't catch. She looked up from her cup gazing and asked, "You are a Libra, right?"

"Yeah, my birthday's tomorrow." I said. "As far as I know, October 20th is still in the Libra area."

She nodded and stared back at the swirled sediments. "I already predicted a few of these things… and yet…" she muttered quietly. She frowned and said, "That's odd…"

I waited as patiently as I could. I didn't believe all that much in fortune telling and reading the future from tea leaves seemed completely absurd. But it was Jamie's tradition and it helped her to get a booster shot to make sure a rabid Pokémon wasn't the cause of her death.

"You are Utopia…" Jamie said calmly and gave me a strange look that seemed to kill my ideas of not being able to read the future. "Do you want to know what I see in the cup?"

I shrugged. "If… sure?"

She gazed at the tea cup and said, "There is a great challenge before you, a mountain that you must climb…"

_Um, ok…_ I thought. _A mountain, as in Twist Mountain?_

She nodded to herself and began to translate the strange blobs of tea leaves in the bottom of the cup. "Besides the mountain shape, I see…" she trailed off and admitted quietly, "Perhaps the tea speaks too frankly. You needn't know everything it says." Jamie said and stooped by her backpack to return the cup to its place. She covered the top with a plastic wrap so as if to not disturb the secret future-thing hidden inside.

I didn't really think that the future could be read so I didn't ask for further information. After all, it was pretty normal to hear from a soothsayer that there was going to be a hardship of some kind. "Ok, that's fine." I said with conviction.

She put all of her tea reading things in her back pack and said as an afterthought, "you have quite the curiosity. Timothy's Yamask puzzles you, does it not?"

"Wait, **Timothy**? You mean Tim, right?" _Ok fine, I would admit to being curious about Luke. I mean, I couldn't really lie to a fortune teller, could I? And Tim's full name was Timothy? Since when?_

She shrugged in reply and I saw my chance to ask if she actually knew him before this contest. "So, did you meet him before this?" I still kept on forgetting that we were in a contest to become one of Skyla's underlings. I guess I was too busy trying to make friends and overcome my social awkwardness and curiosity to think too much on the contest…

Jamie gave me an even stare and said more willingly than before, "I knew **of** him." that was all I was told though. She took up her backpack and walked forward to where Cliff and the other grateful underlings were waiting to address the rest of us.

I joined her in the throng of people, vaguely reminded of our first address by the blue-clad Skyla. But this time it was Cliff and now I actually knew some people in this competition. It seemed like forever but it was only two days ago! I was only on the third day of the competition… third right? First day was camping out for a Pidove, and then the next day Skyla had dinner with us after a Timmy-Tim-Tim showdown with Malcolm, and then the next day I found that foreigner guy with the strange Pokémon… and that was earlier today. Yup…

The man with the helmet and grey outfit of a mechanic called out to the newly protected and band-aided group of eighteen or so trainers. "Congrats, you have made it through three days so far. You still have eleven days left and there will be elimination rounds later on. Skyla will return tomorrow morning so I'll give you a heads-up about what's going on for tomorrow. First, I suggest you spend some free time in Skyla's gym to practice with your Pokémon in the aerial obstacle course, as there will be a timed test soon. Second off, tomorrow will be an elimination round according to a timed essay. The subject will be given at ten via in person or by Xtransceiver. More about that on its day it is assigned. Until then, I encourage you to also train with your flying Pokémon on the balance beams to the north of town, as there will be an elimination round on that course as well.

"Remember that your main focus here is on your flying-type Pokémon and not your other team members. Your aptitude with them will be a key in winning. A few of the Pidoves have given us gym trainers the sign of affection and you will receive a reward later in the challenge for your hard work.

"Once again I apologize for the infection incident and I assure you all that that will never happen again. Thank you." Cliff finished his speech and the rest of the underlings gathered in a group huddle to talk about underling things.

I didn't care what the heck everyone else was doing. The first thing I wanted to do was call up Mom and Dad and ask them about my heritage a bit, then get a good dose of sleep. While lots of people headed for the gym or the balance beams north of town or the Pokémon Center computers to research about the essay. I headed towards the hanger to set down my backpack and have a nice private chat with Mum an' Dad.

It didn't take long to set up the Xtransceiver chat. I was sitting against the cool concrete wall and holding up the small screen of the calling device while waiting for them to pick up their end in no time. They did.

Mom, a plumper looking woman with small eyes and a small nose and my skin color, answered and held the screen (as usual) too closer to her face and spoke a little too loudly. *Hello? Utopia?* she nearly yelled through the speaker phone.

"Mom, you're too close and loud. You can back up, I can hear you…" I said with a hint of exasperation. I always started calls like this and she never seemed to get the picture. Oh the wonders of parents using younger generations' technology…

Her face stopped obscuring everything else and I saw that they were at home on the couch. I could see Dad a little in the background. *Oh, there we are. Hi honey! How's the challenge been so far? You haven't called in a while and the last thing I heard from you was that you were in a gym competition to be hired by text. How is it?* her voice came out in a tumble over the speaker.

"I'm good, still surviving." I said with a hint of sarcasm.

*And how are your Pokémon?* My dad asked from the corner of the screen. My mom noticed that he wasn't in the picture and turned the Xtransceiver to have them both in the screen. He was a surprisingly short man that was getting some grey and white in his short black hair and his short moustache was nearly all grey.

I smiled back at my parents and said, "They're doing great. Len's a Palpitoad… though I think you knew that already. I caught a Vullaby too." I hadn't called them for a while so I had to think back to how far they knew. "So I have a question…"

*What is it dear?* Mom said sweetly.

I almost felt bad to ask it, but I did anyways. "I saw a foreigner from the lands of Hoenn today and I was just wondering… I kind of look like him and I was curious to know if our family line was from overseas or not." That was one of the lamest sentences possible to say but it came out that way.

In response, my mom frowned and said, *I'm sorry, the Xtransceiver glitched a little there. We'll call you back later, ok? Bye, love you.* The screen then showed that the call had been ended with a happy little animation of a Minccino placing a phone in its cradle.

Why did I have a feeling that the call didn't glitch at all? _Oh well, I don't care right now. I'm tired and I will sleep! Today was just way too full of adventures to try to stay up later._ I quickly set up camp in the stinky and chewed sleeping bag and called out Len to send his sound waves to help me sleep. I patted the Palpitoad and sank onto my pillow, falling asleep faster than I expected.


	20. Sweet Sixteen

**A/N: I looked in Bulbapedia and saw that there actually is a Luke character in Best Wishes Pokémon anime. His Pokémon are Zorua, Golett, Leavnanny, and Larvesta… weird huh? Luke the Yamask has no relation however to this other Luke. :)**

**I do not own Pokémon, however I like to think I own my character's souls and personalities (as in Utopia, Tim, Malcolm, Gregor, Bob, Jamie, and possible other original characters). **

**Enjoy the story.**

I slept really well that night, so deeply that I had fantastical dreams. But I didn't remember them and I'm probably glad I didn't. Sometimes my imagination just gives me weird dreams, like that one dream about balancing on a rubber ball in a competition with a Darumaka. Don't ask.

The next morning I awoke to the sound of something thumping on the ground. I blinked my bleary eyes slowly and rubbed at the crusty stuff to clear my vision. I was able to catch a glimpse of something close to my head. I swore it was Luke but the thing disappeared before my eyes. Yup, only a ghost-type Pokémon could do that… that or I was still asleep.

I sat up in the stinking sleeping bag and blinked slowly for my eyes to clear. Again, I had slept very, very well. I think I was still half-asleep. I looked in the direction of the perceived past bump sound and saw something laying there, a white box with a little blue ribbon. No tag or address or card, just a simple box. Weird. I leaned forward and picked up the box. Well, 'tried to' is more accurate. It was a heavy box!

I grunted and pulled the box toward me. _What's this for?_ I wondered. I fought the urge to open it until I knew what was going on. For all I knew it could be a really heavy jack-in-the-box just waiting to pop out on me… Was I still half-asleep? Yeah.

It wasn't all that dark out and I could see things around me. In fact, Len was laying on his side, letting out small sound waves that made me want to instantly fall back asleep. At least he was here instead of talking with a Poli-thing.

Another thing that seemed a little less-than ordinary was the fact that none of the other girls (Clara and Jamie) were on my side of the hanger. _Don't tell me that Skyla finally let us sleep in the Pokémon center rooms!_ I thought ruefully. That would be just typical of me though…

I glanced at the package again and let my fuzzy brain come up with some sort of logic for a heavy box being given by Luke the Yamask… I came up with nothing. I sighed and lay back down to go to sleep, but Len heard me and woke up cheerfully, sending happy calls of 'pal!' my way. I sat back up and patted my starter Pokémon in the top-most head-bump. "Morning…" I croaked.

"And a good morning to you to!"

I stopped and stared at my Pokémon. "Len did you…?"

"Palpi?" Len asked back.

The correct speaker came out of my peripheral vision. I turned and saw the famous red-head holding out a tray of still-steaming food. He had a huge grin on his face as he crouched down to my level and held out the food. "Happy Birthday, Utopia! It's your sweet sixteenth!"

I blushed suddenly. Malcolm was giving me breakfast in bed… in my less-than satisfactory sleeping bag and my old and probably smelly clothes from yesterday. I ducked back into my sleeping bag and tried to wave him away from my bed-head and smell. "Um, thanks…" I mumbled and waved my hand hastily. "Uh, you can go now…"

Malcolm didn't seem to get my picture. He sat down right beside me and practically put the tray of eggs, bacon, and pancakes in my lap. "No problem. I talked with everyone in this competition and you are the only person with a birthday in this stretch of two weeks of this camp. And so yeah, why not?"

I suddenly got the impression that one, Malcolm wasn't one to spare any expense for a person he wanted to feel welcome or happy, and two, he probably had the money to back him up. "Um, thanks…" I repeated and eyed the tray of food. _When was the last time I had breakfast in bed or even this big of a breakfast to begin with? _I almost felt that this was too sacred to eat, as if I should take a picture to keep this memory forever.

The redhead patted Len and said, "And of course I couldn't forget food for your Pokémon. Hey Len, how are you?"

Len, being in his cheery mood from being an early riser, chirped back happily, "Palpitoad palpi toad toadpal!" he even jumped up a little and wagged his tail. _Since when was Len so friendly?_

Malcolm chuckled and patted my Palpitoad as if Len and he were super special awesome friends. He gave the sound-toad a bowl of food and said, "I wish I could understand what he said. If only Tim's Yamask was here to translate." He said with a slight gleam in his eye.

"Yeah, Luke is pretty nice." I said calmly while arguing with myself to dig in or take a picture.

"Wait, you already know one of Tim's Pokémon?" Malcolm said with astonishment, and then grinned a little. "But I bet you don't know his entire team like I do!"

I let myself show some surprise even though I was still a little sleep-disoriented. "Really? What's his team?" Sure, all I knew was that he had an Archen and a friend that was now a Pokémon in his team. And I did like to learn a secret or two, especially since I could play the birthday-card today.

Malcolm seemed excited as he talked about his findings. "Well, I battled the emo yesterday and even though I lost, I got to wear him down enough to see his team…"

"Wait, Tim beat you? But your Braviary beat his Archen before." I accidentally interrupted him. Maybe Luke was holding back on my fight, or maybe the other mystery Pokémon were more fearsome than I expected.

The famous boy shrugged and said, "I wasn't expecting his tact. I mean, with a fight over asphalt my Conkeldurr's rock slide failed against his Pokémon…"

"So what Pokémon are they?" I wanted names, not a story.

He smiled at me. "I dunno, maybe I might tell you if you enjoy the food in front of you."

_Ooh, he knew his power of information._ I was a little mad at myself for falling into that trap, but I wasn't too ticked. I took a bite of the pancake and gestured for his to keep on talking.

Malcolm Kwester smiled, using his power flauntingly. "So, there I was by Skyla's gym and I see Tim the emo-man talking to his Yamask to stay focused. I said hi and he brushed me off like the rude punk he was. I said, 'hey, cool Yamask' and he was like, 'yeah, good job, it's a Yamask'. Then I asked about his Pidove and then he called me a name. I called out my Darmanitan in anger and suddenly I was battling his Yamask. Then after his Yamask won that round I sent out Braviary. He switched out his Pokémon and he sent out a…" he paused and grinned at my frown for the pause, "Cryogonal." He finished.

Cryogonal… I had never really heard of that Pokémon much other than it being an ice-type Pokémon used by Brycen's underlings up in Icirrus. I tried not to act dumb, but I couldn't help asking about it. "Um, is that the floating snowflake thing?"

He chuckled at that and I felt inclined to frown or punch his shoulder. I stuck with frowning. I still didn't know him all that well. _What was it, a four-day-old relationship so far? Wait, we aren't in a relationship! No way! He's a friend!_ He nodded and said, "Yeah, it's a pretty fearsome Pokémon. It defeated my Braviary with one hit. Stupid dirty hit though! My poor bird had to go to the Pokémon center all night for the ice to thaw. He'll be lucky if he can raise chicks in the future."

I blushed at the statement and understood how his Pokémon had been wounded. That would suck I would imagine. Well, I wasn't a guy so I couldn't fully sympathize. But still… "So what was his fourth Pokémon?" I now knew three of his possible four-strong team; Archen, Luke, and a Cryogonal.

"I'm getting there." He smiled and seemed to think of patting my head but held back. "Then after poor Braviary fainted I called out Conkeldurr and gave that snowflake some pain. He then called out his last unknown Pokémon… you aren't eating your breakfast."

I stuffed another mouthful of pancake in my mouth to keep him talking. _Ugh, guys sometimes!_

He smirked and continued in his story-mode. "His last mystery Pokémon was a challenge especially since Conkeldurr couldn't use rockslide on it. It was pretty fast too. I think it was nicknamed…"

"What's the freaking Pokémon's species?" I said much louder than intended. Yet again I was inadequately expressing my emotions. I blushed and tried to act a little nicer. "I'm sorry, you were saying?"

Malcolm gave me a cautious look and came right out with it. "I think it was nicknamed Siggy the Sigilyth…"

I grinned and downed some of the bacon with a forced smile. "That's cool then. Sorry again, I was just… tired…"

He shrugged and concluded his story. "So, his Sigilyth defeated Conkeldurr and then he called out his Yamask –talking Yamask—to face my Cottonee. I threw the match and he wanted to skip off in victory, but his nice Yamask spoke to me about the great match instead of his trainer. That was really weird right there…"

I nodded. I now had a feeling that Tim's Pokémon were all kind of related to each other in geography but I didn't really know for sure. I smiled at the thought of Luke and his cute little pleas. He seemed to be trying to help Tim make friends… what a loyal friend/ghost/Pokémon… thing. "Luke's a nice person. I wish I knew him when he was still alive." I said.

Malcolm seemed completely caught off-guard about that little fact. I mentally apologized to Luke for blowing his secret. If Malcolm knew, then all of his friends would soon find out. The red-head scoffed at me and said with a false laugh, "Luke's a Pokémon Utopia… a Pokémon."

I smiled back and said, "I know a little more about Luke. He was a friend of Tim before he died and became a Yamask."

Malcolm stared at me for a long moment in shock. After a while of gathering his thoughts, he said, "People can't become Pokémon."

"But a Yamask is supposed to be a human spirit born as a Pokémon. I read it in a book in the Nacrene library when I was waiting for my Pokémon to hatch." Actually, I wanted to read a spooky story back then so that I could sit around a campfire and tell a ghost story to my Pokémon and or traveling friends but that never happened. Actually, I hadn't thought of that book until I met Luke…

"But how?" Malcolm frowned. "Not everyone that dies becomes a Yamask. What made it so that he might have become a Pokémon?"

I shrugged. "That's what I've been asking."

He sighed and apologized. "Sorry, I'm kind of uptight about that. I'm just used to being around Pokémon experts. My family of course is proud of Eugene, Ivy, and Hess. My parents became top-class researchers for Juniper so that I could live up to the Kwester name. I'm used to having answers… I guess we'll have to figure this mystery out, hmm?"

He suddenly was talking about his life and high expectations for him. I could see him now in a slightly more real way now. He was trying to earn and hold up the family reputation! He was a person with a great burden to be above average… I smiled at him. "Yeah, it's kind of funner to search instead of getting straight-up answers sometimes."

"Funner isn't a word." Malcolm scoffed with a tease. He suddenly looked at his wrist and swore quietly. "Crap! I shouldn't keep you longer. You've only got an hour and a half to get ready for the day before the essay in the computer lab starts!"

_Landorus!_ I scarfed down the best parts of the meal (the bacon and eggs) and jumped out of the stinking sleeping bag, scaring both Malcolm and Len the Palpitoad in the process. I thanked Malcolm for the food and the talk quickly while returning Len to his Pokéball and rolling up the sleeping bag to clean up my area a little.

I waved and ran to the Pokémon Center with my usual toiletries to take a shower and basic other things a girl would use for a normal day. In fact, I was planning to use a bit of make-up since I was officially sixteen today.

One hour later I was in considerably better condition, wearing a snug long-sleeved sweater and a favorite t-shirt underneath, jeans for the bottom and some fluffy tan fall boots. I tied up my long black hair in a ponytail even! Once I was ready I breathed a sigh of relief and went back to the hanger to put my bag back into my pile of stuff.

I didn't see any of the other competitors around, which got me a little nervous that I was missing out on the essay. That was an elimination round! I couldn't miss it; I'd be out of the running! I picked up the pace and nearly ran to the hanger.

Once there I dumped the stuff by my stuff and whipped around to almost collide with a blur of blonde and pink. I calmed myself a little and greeted Jamie. "Good morning, Jamie." I said pleasantly. I wasn't one to tell everyone that it was my birthday so I resorted to normal conversation.

She on the other hand knew all too well that it was my birthday (should've known with her being a soothsayer and all…). She nodded and held out a small box that looked like the kind that held a necklace or bracelet of sorts. "Happy Birthday, Utopia." She said simply and placed the small white box in my hands. The older soothsayer stared at me, waiting for me to open the thing.

I wasn't used to getting this much attention in one day, and much less getting a present from a person I had only met four days ago. I smiled and opened the small box to stare at the thing lying on the inside. To say it simply, it was extraordinary. It was a pendant necklace on a thick silver chain. The pendant was a strange shape, almost like a dragon surrounding a dark gem of sorts with little diamond-like things surrounding the entire pendant. I looked up from the gift and gave the soothsayer a huge grin. "Thanks… thank you very much!" I didn't need any encouragement; I took it out and fastened the necklace around my neck to display the gift as a sign of gratitude.

I felt inclined to hug her, but held back. She was still an aloof-type person and probably wasn't a big hugger. I thanked her again and said I had to get to the computer lab. She nodded and let me go. I glanced back at the forgotten heavy box by my stuff. I figured that I could open it later; I had to get to the computer lab stat!

After a few steps back to the Pokémon center, I realized that she had to go the same time as me. _So why was she still hanging back?_ I looked back to her and saw that she was setting up a tea party once again. "Um, we've got to get to the computer lab… don't you want to come with?"

"I have some double-checking to do. I'll catch up." She said simply.

I shrugged and walked back to the Pokémon center. _I swear that after this challenge that I'm going to lose ten pounds or something from all of this exercise of walking to and from places! Where's the public transit of Castelia? Oh well._ I looked down at the pendant and rubbed my finger over the smooth surface. That was very nice of Jamie to get me a necklace. I promised to wear it often, if not for a long time after now. I didn't have much jewelry on me so why not?

I entered the Pokémon center not long after that and walked to the basement just in time. I checked the Xtranceiver and saw that I had gotten a text while in the shower. It read, [Essays will be written in a four-hour time frame in the computer lab of the Pokémon Center basement at 2:00 pm, or 14:00 military time. Do NOT miss it. Cliff.]

I stared at the message and then at the current time. "Well this is crap. Why'd Malcolm tell me that it was now? I've got two hours still!"

"**SURPRISE!"**

I about died of a heart attack right then. The seemingly abandoned computer lab suddenly gained Pokémon trainers hiding in the shadows and other places I didn't care to inspect carefully. I jumped badly and held my heart as I scanned the room for a Kyurem out of instinct. I can't help if I'm paranoid…

The trainers, almost all of the competitors for the Skyla's challenge, came out of their hiding places and surrounded me in the biggest group hug I had ever experienced in my life. I saw Malcolm again along with Bob the grease monkey, Gregor the hero-nerd, Clara the interviewer and her boyfriend, and the others I knew by sight. I didn't see Tim and I wasn't really surprised.

I was released from the hug and Malcolm draped his arm around my shoulders and gave me the lowdown. "Hey! Hope you don't mind it, but I got the guys together-"

"Hey, I'm a woman!" Clara, the dark-skinned girl, interjected playfully.

Malcolm laughed with the rest of the crowd and said, "Yeah, the guys and Clara… anyways, hope you don't mind it, but we wanted to have some fun before some of us might get kicked out of the running. So we all got you little presents and some snacks if you've still got room for food."

I had to say that right at that moment I was very happy. Sure I felt a little underserving of attention, but I was very, very happy.


	21. Secret of Luke

Malcolm was a pretty good party-planner I had to give him that. We had two hours to eat snacks, socialize, and open presents. I of course felt completely overwhelmed by the massive attention and flood of people congratulating me on turning sixteen. I guess my birthday was just timed well this year. Not to mention that this was a next chapter in my life, meeting people face-to-face and the like.

In some cultures fifteen is a big celebration (especially here where you can become a trainer) but sixteen is kind of huge for girls in Unova. It was one of the bigger celebrations… sometimes it involved a big cake and some families spent fortunes to make a sweet sixteenth for a Unovain girl as sweet as possible. I only knew that from watching TV shows about spoiled teens that got lots of celebrations and stuff for their birthday. I'm not a big fan of that show since the girls featured on the show tend to be snobby and ungrateful.

Ahem, spacey moments even take me in the midst of my birthday. I of course was mainly around Malcolm the span of the party, talking with the others in the competition like old friends that we wouldn't possibly dream of knocking out of the competition for our own advantages…

Bob the grease monkey and Gregor talked with me and Malcolm and became instant friends with the red-headed famous boy. I could tell that Malcolm was actually a little intimidated by Bob and Gregor's intelligence of making a dowsing machine. Once again I noted that Malcolm maybe was trying his very best to act like a star when he actually wasn't really the smartest person around. I kind of liked seeing that and finding his more human qualities rather than a mask of being a famous person and heart-winner.

I finally actually had a small conversation with Clara, the third girl in the competition… though it was more of an interview. She asked about how it felt to be in the competition and turning sixteen while her boyfriend's camera was pointed at my face. After I answered her questions with as little awkwardness as I could muster, she skipped off to other things. Oh well… nothing I could do about it. Malcolm was keener on introducing me to everyone rather than hanging out with an interviewer.

After the one-hour marker, Malcolm announced to everyone that the presents were to be opened. I glanced at the only table that didn't have a computer on it and saw a small pile of presents. I was absolutely fine with small presents. In fact, I hadn't expected getting any gifts so **anything** would be nice.

I walked up to the table and suddenly felt a little overwhelmed by the people calling 'open mine first'. I looked at the presents and picked up a small square present that said, 'from Gregor'. I smiled and opened the wrapping paper to see that it was Claritin allergy relief.

"It's for when you run into furry Pokémon like my Purrloin." Gregor said with a small laugh. "Keep it close, you hear?"

I turned to him and nodded. "Thanks very much, Gregor. I'll be sure to use it." That was really clever of him! This would be a much better alternative than dodging furred Pokemon.

Bob's gift was a little tinker toy, the kind that is a puzzle where you have to get one part free from the others in a mind-bending way. I didn't think I would spend much time on it even try to solve it, but I was still grateful for the thought.

The others gave me simple things as in cash and several small necklaces and jewelry that I didn't know if I'd ever wear. I thanked everyone in turn and when I didn't know their name they corrected me with a kind smile. Birthday girls get a little more lenience with that… though after the party I pretty much forgot everyone's name. I guess my memory didn't work all that well. I placed the last necklace in a bag I used to collect my presents so far and began to thank everyone for their gifts when Malcolm interrupted me.

"You didn't get to open my present yet!" He reached under a table and pulled out a large pink bag with the stuffing paper hiding its contents. He gave me a wide grin and held it out to me. "Hope you like it."

I felt myself blushing again and I set it on the ground and threw the paper off to reveal… I was completely and utterly amazed. I simply stared until the other people demanded to know what was in it. I pulled out the gift and realized that there was still some stuff under it as well. But it was a **sleeping bag**, a nice quality one at that as well! It was labeled Pokémon-safe and had a Tympole design! I could hardly contain my gratitude. It was so perfect! I **needed** a new sleeping bag and it had Tympole designs just like my starter Pokémon…

I was about to thank him in a blubbering speech, but he pointed me back to the bag. Still waiting to be explored was a plastic container of the higher quality Pokéchow and right next to it… I couldn't help squealing like a kid in a candy store! I picked up the toy and hugged it tightly. It was a fluffy Minccino toy roughly the size of my head and SO FLUFFY! Did I mention that when encountering a stuffed animal toy I become a completely different person?

I turned to Malcolm and before I could control myself, I ran at him and hugged him tightly while saying thank you over and over. After my initial irrational behavior I let him go from my crushing hug and cuddled with my stuffed Minccino.

Malcolm chuckled and admitted, "Good, glad you like the gifts…"

I blushed and felt embarrassed in front of the fifteen some-odd people there. I clasped my hands around the plushie and said to all of them, "I'm so very thankful for all of the gifts, guys. Thanks… you don't know how much this means to me…" I started packing all of the gifts into the bag Malcolm's gifts had come from to distract myself from accidentally crying. I was simply so overwhelmed by the number of people that celebrated my birthday with me… but I couldn't cry in front of all these people! I patted the little Minccino toy and placed it on the top of the pile.

"Ok, thanks for all of your contributions and participation for this special girl. We've got about a half-hour before our essays, so you all are free to get prepared. Just be sure to clean up a little, got it?" Malcolm addressed the crowd as if he was a natural host.

Soon the contestants cleaned up a little and exited with a kind 'happy birthday' farewell. Not too long after that, I was left in the computer room with Malcolm. The red-head leaned against the nearest table and said, "I can honestly say that you surprised me when you saw the Minccino. I wasn't expecting that."

I chuckled nervously and said, "Yeah, you found out my secret weakness…" _Darn secret weakness… Landorus, why did I have to be susceptible to cute little fluffy and soft children's toys?_ I picked up the slightly heavy bag and said, "That was really nice of you… I mean, everything so far today. Thanks…"

"It's no biggie." He said with a strange look in his eyes.

"No really, that was really nice. I feel really undeserving of this."

We paused for a long while in silence after I said that. I didn't know what else to say after that so I simply stared down at my presents. Well, what else was I to say? I had already thanked him… maybe I could just leave soon and actually get ready for the elimination round essay.

After a while of awkward pause I looked back up to him to try to make an excuse to get my stuff back to the hanger and get ready for the essay in a while, but he was suddenly closer to me than before.

He sat on the table I was sitting on and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. I looked up into his face and flushed. He was so close to me… I could almost feel him wanting to pull me closer, even try to kiss me. I wasn't ready for that!

I smiled and got off the table and mumbled my excuses quickly, "Um, thanks again… good luck on the essay an' stuff…" Then I left the computer lab in a flurry. My face remained flushed and my mind began to work overtime about everything about Malcolm and if I really liked him and why I couldn't focus on the tasks at hand and have to get involved with these other people's lives… my feet pretty much took me back towards the hanger while I thought about everything way more than I should have.

_I mean, Malcolm has been so nice to me so far. He's outgoing and friendly and he makes me feel welcome all the time. But did I __**like**__ like him? What about me was so attractive to him? He had fame on his side, not to mention some funds, so why me? I'm pretty sure that there are much better girls outside of this competition to seek after._

I suddenly heard a voice call out to me through my whirling thoughts. I was afraid it was Malcolm, but it wasn't. I didn't want to talk to Malcolm just yet while processing my thoughts and feelings. In front of me and blocking my way to the hanger was emo-man holding the white box from before. So it was from him/Luke after all!

Tim looked a little annoyed with something _(what else is new_) and held out the heavy box pretty easily. "You forgot this." He said in a monotone voice, his dark eyes flashing.

I smiled and was about to say that I was already holding a slightly heavy bag as it was, but Luke appeared and saved me from stating the obvious.

"_Come on, Tim. Can't you carry it back to the hanger with her?"_ the ghost seemed to smile and waved at me. "_Happy Birthday, Utopia. Sorry for waking you up."_

I brightened and tried to push all the weird feelings into the back of my head. "Hi Luke," then a smiled as best as I could at Tim, "Hi Tim. Thanks for the present…"

Tim frowned at me and turned around. "Well, come on then. We've only got a little bit until our essays." He glared at me and taunted, "Come on, is your ability 'slow start' or something? Or maybe it's 'slacker'."

Luke sighed and thought to both me and Tim, _"What's with you today? Be a little nicer. It's Utopia's birthday!"_

"Whoo, it's a day that someone gets older on. Big whoop." He deadpanned.

Once again I felt my dislike for the guy build up. I held back my building anger and said with forced niceness, "Yeah, that's about it. And when is your day of birth?"

He didn't even acknowledge my question. He walked up to the hanger door, marched to my pile of stuff, and dropped the heavy present on the ground. After that deed was done, he brushed off his hands and tried to leave, but his cute little ghost Pokémon floated in his way.

"_Don't you want to see Utopia open her present?"_ Luke thought nervously.

He mumbled something back but I didn't catch it.

I put down my bag of presents down by my other things and stared at the white box. _Oh heck, it was just another present. I could open it just fine with or without an audience. _I reached out and untied the ribbon and lifted the lid. I stared at the two things inside and I stared in confusion. "Um, so what are these?"

Luke floated over instead of Tim to explain the present. The Yamask closed his eyes happily and thought to me, _"The small blue gem is called a water gem and it's something your Palpitoad Len can use."_

"But it's a one-time thing so use it wisely!" Tim said in an almost offended tone from the hanger door.

I glanced back at the emo, then at the large brown slab of rock beside the small blue gem.

"_And that's a root fossil. Tim found a few while in Icirrus and Twist Mountain and if you bring it to Nacrene and get the researchers to bring it back to life into a Pokémon!"_ Luke twirled in midair happily and floated closer to my head. _"Do you like it?"_

I nodded and patted the little ghost on the head. "Yes, thanks very much." _That was very nice. Luke and Tim gave me a Pokémon! I would have to get it brought back to life, but even so they got me a Pokémon._ I suddenly saw something hidden behind Luke's mask on his tail and asked while pointing, "What's that?"

Luke glanced at his mask and pulled out the item behind it. It was a simple grey stone almost the same shape and size of the back of Luke's mask. The Yamask giggled a little nervously and said, "_It's an everstone…"_

I nodded. "That makes sense. I don't think it would be nice to evolve into a Cofagrigus anyways. I wouldn't want to be a living coffin Pokémon if I was reborn into a Yamask."

"If I see another Cofagrigus it'll be too soon!" Tim nearly exploded behind me.

I turned around and saw to my surprise Tim's face nearly livid. His fists were clenched and his face was reddening with some very strong sense of hate. I gulped and held up my hands. "Calm down, I didn't say…"

Luke replaced the everstone behind his mask and sighed lightly. I could tell that something was up.

Tim glared at me. "By now you should be able to understand what happened to Luke. I've given you enough clues and you seem to want to know so badly, but do you really want to know?" his eyebrows were arched in a picture of nearly complete rage. "**Well**?" he huffed.

No one else was within earshot of us in the hanger that I could tell. I glanced at Luke, and then looked back at Tim. I still didn't understand how his clues lead up to a conclusion, so I decided that I really wanted the mystery solved. "Ok, I do want to know. Tell me the truth." I tried to sound much more confident than I was. I wanted to know the mystery of Luke and Tim and Cofagrigus… but for some reason this spurt of rage made me fear the information I was seeking.

Tim closed his eyes and said, "Fine, but you can't tell anyone else, got it?" He opened his eyes again to watch my reaction. I nodded and he replied slowly, "Let's just say that after a trip to the desert ruins and Relic Castle I learned a terrible truth about that coffin Pokémon… and how they sometimes make their offspring…"

I didn't know where this was going so I waited for him to continue.

Tim walked forward and sat down close to where Luke and I were in the cold hanger. He gave me a serious look and said, "Five people went into the Relic castle and only four people and a Pokémon came out…" he sighed heavily and elaborated. "A few years ago my dad and Luke's dad got a job offer from a famous Pokémon breeder to find the elusive Larvesta and Volcarona. Luke and I came along and had fun exploring in there…"

"_Then I wandered off and found a lump of gold inside a half-open coffin…" _Luke continued the story with a hint of sadness.

Tim clenched his teeth tightly and said in a quieter voice. "I came back from exploring the caverns to look for Luke… but it was too late. I saw a golden coffin and some blood dripping out of the bottom. I started getting worried and I wrenched the thing open…" he trailed off to recover his breath, maybe even his voice.

I couldn't help letting my mouth fall open a little. _And this was a true story? This actually happened to him? _My heart went from elation from the birthday party to terror and sympathy for Tim.

"I saw Luke dead inside the coffin and a Yamask floating right by his body… But when the Cofagrigus (that ate Luke and gave birth to a new Yamask) felt that its meal was being taken, it attacked. Luckily my father and Luke's father defended me from the coffin Pokémon and it fled… But the damage done to Luke was done."

I gasped and glanced between the two. _That couldn't have been true… that didn't really happen, did it?_

Tim sighed and said with a little hint of grim facination, "It took a while for me to realize that my friend was reborn as a Yamask and for Luke to learn how to use telepathy and his other Pokémon powers… but even so I couldn't bring myself to train Pokémon after Luke died and became one…"

I stared at Tim, completely confounded by the story and his apparent honesty. I stared at Luke again and asked Tim quietly, "So a Cofagrigus killed Luke and made him a Yamask? In a sense that was his Pokémon-mom?"

Luke nodded with a hint of a smile. _"Yeah, it's kind of odd that way, but that's what happened. My human-self killer became my Pokémon-self mother."_

I asked Tim, "So why did you tell me this story of your life? Why me?" What about me was so special to get Tim to talk about something that was clearly very personal and still a deep and un-healed wound?

Tim sighed and stood back up, his moment of honesty and vulnerability over. "Well, you asked… and I guess it's your birthday…"

I stood up with him and smiled sadly. "I'm so sorry for you. I mean, you've gone through a lot, much more than me…" I guess I was in a hugging mood, because I hugged the emo-man quickly. I felt really bad for the guy. I mean, he had watched his friend die and become a Yamask. The only thing I could do for him to show I cared was a little hug.

He quickly brushed me off with a small glare. "I don't want your sympathy." He said, but with a little less certainty. I couldn't tell if something on the inside had changed or not, but to some degree his resolve had changed. He crossed his arms and looked at the hanger entrance. "And we are running late for the essay."

I sucked in a breath of air and double-checked to see that all of my Pokémon and my personal bag were with me. "Oh Landorus!" I cursed. _What is with me and insisting to cut everything to the last minute today?_

Tim snorted. "You curse weird." He remarked.

"_She's said it before to me."_ Luke thought. "_Though I have to say… er, __**think**__ that I've never heard anyone else curse a Pokémon before, and a legendary one at that."_

I forced a smile. "Look, I know it's weird and all, but I'm from a slightly different background so my vocabulary might be different than yours. Lacunosa and Anville might have influenced my speaking. Now shouldn't we get to the Pokémon Center before we get kicked out of the competition?"

"I'm from Icirrus, a more civilized town than Anville!" Tim shot back, obviously back to enjoying any attempt to make fun of me and get me mad.

"Look, **Timothy**, I'm going right now!"

Both Luke and Tim stared at me, and then Luke giggled. _"Ooh, Tim, you got told off by someone younger than you!"_

"Aw shut it!" Tim grumbled back at his friend. "How'd you know my full name?" he demanded.

"A little soothsayer told me." I stated and walked quickly to the hanger door. I didn't want to be late! I marched on and found that Tim (or should I say **Timothy**) and his Yamask/Luke/friend were following me after all. "I'm glad you decided to come along." I called back to them and continued my quick march.

_Sure, I felt sorry for Tim and then he makes fun of me. Fine, I just won't show sympathy for his past next time…_ But I knew that wasn't true. I still couldn't believe what Tim had said… it just seemed too sereal. He had seen his friend die at the fangs of a Cofagrigus… his best friend was transformed into a Pokémon… and my Larvesta might have been involved with the whole affair as well. And then Eugene Kwester might have been in the story as well, funding the whole trip into Relic Castle…

_So that connected Tim, Malcolm, and me together. _Weird how that worked out. We all sat together during our first meal in the Pokémon Center… and Jamie, the soothsayer that she is, probably could tell that from the start. _Maybe she actually does see parts of the future… what if some whole big event revolved around Malcolm, Tim, and me?_

I shook my head. _No, that's stupid to think. We are just in a contest to get an underling position under a Unovian Gym Leader that wears inappropriate clothes and drives cargo planes. That's the only coincidence that we all held._

By then Tim had caught up with my pace but wasn't talking to me. I think he was still ticked at me calling him by his full name. _Oh well, he deserved it._ I gave him sympathy and he made fun of me. _There is simply no hope for this emo!_

Luke hovered by my head and used telepathy to tell me, _"Um, Utopia… I wanted to thank you for what you did back there… I mean, like listening to Tim. You're the first person he's shared this story with. I think you and him might get to be friends… maybe."_

I gave Luke a look that spelt out my disbelief.

The ghost Pokémon became a little nervous and insisted, _"No really. I think so!"_

I softened my look as I remembered the new fact I learned about Luke today. He was killed by a Cofagrigus and made a Yamask… all thanks to curiosity and being in the wrong place. If he ever lost his evolution-preventing stone he would become the very thing that killed him.

I suddenly remembered something… that last thing Tim said about the story I had asked for the past few days… he couldn't bring himself to train Pokémon because his friend had become one? _There was still more to Tim than I knew. _

And yet again I was still thinking too hard about the people around me. I had to actually focus eventually on the gym and learning the ins and outs of flying Pokémon. _That's it, after the essay I will go to the gym and practice the obstacle course or what not with Pebbles. Crap, I should feed my Pokémon! It's been a while_!

**A/N: The chapters have been getting longer, but I've been majorly enjoying writing them. Hope you're enjoying the story so far. And feel free to leave reviews, they make me happy :3**


	22. The Essay

I sighed and waved Luke back to his friend. I had to focus and there was no way I was going to get distracted this time. I had an essay to write, just like the multiple things I had to write for homeschooling and the like. Just give me the subject and if I can use the internet to do a bit of research, I could pull it off easy. _Here I come, Utopia Fletcher ready, to take on Skyla's challenge! Bring it!_

Ok, maybe I was getting a little too pumped… but it still worked. I marched forward to the Pokémon Center, barely noticing if Tim was walking behind me or not. Sure it was very cool that I found out his story, but I could think about that later.

I marched through the Pokémon Center and kept even pace down the stairs to the computer lab. I snapped out of complete and utter focus when I saw Malcolm and the awkwardness built up again. I waved timidly and stammered, "Um, hi. Ready for the test and stuff?"

The red-head waved back and answered, "Stoked, and you?" He was obviously fine with my quick departure of a few minutes ago.

"Yeah." I gave him a thumbs-up and sat down at the nearest computer open. Tim sat down at the computer next to me but didn't look my way. _Maybe he was still sour at me calling him by his full name._ I just noticed that Luke had disappeared from sight. I couldn't tell if he was invisible or simply back in a Pokéball…

I glanced back and Malcolm and tried to find words to express why I had left in a hurry earlier, but what a surprise, words simply fail me. I mentally shrugged and turned back to the blank screen.

I love Pokémon centers, I just do. They provide so much free stuff, as in food and a place to stay and computer use. Sure taxes covered the upkeep, but it felt free. But besides that once a trainer registers with a Prof, they can set up a username and password to get on any computer in the Pokémon Center network. Unfortunately, lots of kids have laptops, rendering desktops un-useful, and I personally never met the Prof in person. Redundant statement, I know… But it worked out; I called up the Prof Juniper and got my password when I was hatching my first two Pokémon in Nacrene.

I looked over my shoulder as others turned in their chairs. Someone was coming down the stairs to give us our assignment. I craned my neck to see who was coming.

It was the Gym Leader herself, in her blazing glory of a thick winter coat that didn't do anything to protect her legs. Just like her normal uniform, she was clothed well on the top, but not the bottom. Skyla put her hands on her hips with a rustle of her coat and proclaimed, "Well, that trip yesterday was fun. I heard that you had fun as well, regarding shots and diseased birds. I'm terribly sorry and I will personally compensate any of you for health problems. I am back from Icirrus and I will see to it that no more problems of that extent will happen again." As Skyla said this, I swore I saw Tim either flinch or jump at the mention of the icy town… _Oh wait, didn't he mention that that was his home?_

Skyla continued, "Second off, I noticed that there was a party here earlier. I'm just curious, who's the birthday boy or girl today?" The red-headed gym leader scanned us, looking for a volunteer. I jumped as I realized that she was talking about me and I raised my hand.

"Oh, you again. I keep on bumping into you, don't I?" She leaned forward and smiled at me. "Well happy birthday then. I hope this essay doesn't make you go home today. That would be a depressing ending to the contest, wouldn't it?" she said with that same smile. I noted with a small shiver that she was quite serious and not going to go easy on me. Skyla straightened back up and hugged her arms around her as if she was cold in the heated room.

"Now listen closely," she instructed the entirety of the hopefuls, "I need an essay written by you and no plagiarism or copying of other people's work. If you need quotes, use the MLA style citing. Now for your subject…"

I turned around and quickly pulled up a word document to type her words onto.

"Tell me what a Pokémon Gym is about, for, and your place in it as a trainer and a gym trainer. Why does a Gym Leader specialize in one type of Pokémon?" Skyla stood taller and said, "My gym trainers will be viewing you to make sure no co-op will ensue. Try to help each other and you will be instantly kicked out of the contest for a gym trainer position."

I gulped. _This is heavy…_ I looked at what I typed and sighed. _Why'd she have to make such a vague topic?_

"So, there is no page limit. Feel free to write as much or little to get your point across. You have four hours to organize your paper and research on the internet. See you later then. Cliff, Arnold, Barry, Ted and Chase are taking up their positions. Time starts… now!" she snapped her fingers and turned in place to march out of the lab.

I noticed that the gym trainers were in fact taking up positions to watch us and make sure we didn't talk to each other. I glanced at Tim out of the corner of my eye and saw his frustrated face. I on the other hand was confident and used to essays. _Thank you homeschooling, it actually helps to write essays after essays on the internet for school._

I cracked my fingers and back to warm up before starting to free write my thoughts on the topic. _So, what was the purpose of a Pokémon Gym after all? A way to test beginning trainers to see if they could handle the harder Pokémon as they travelled throughout Unova? A place where a trainer just went to get a badge to compete in the Pokémon League? What was the purpose of specializing in one type of Pokémon anyways?_

After these questions were typed out on the word document, I decided to pull up a window or two to see what Pokémon experts said about it, even if the league website had anything on the mission statement of Pokémon Gyms.

I breezed through the essay with full confidence. I triple checked my four-paged work for contractions, diction/phrasing, and the MLA citing system. I scanned the document a fourth time and looked at the clock. I was surprised with myself that two and half hours had passed. But it was well worth the time and effort. I pretty much typed out what others said and said if I agreed or disagreed with other facts. I was pretty much in favor of Pokémon Gyms being for trainer experience and for the Gym Leader and trainers to learn about the ins and outs of one type of Pokémon to know the advantages and weaknesses of the selected kind. _Basic enough_. And I even threw in a conclusion paragraph about how I felt it would be to fit into such a system as well. Nothing could be wrong about the paper other than my opinion.

I straightened my back again and looked at the Gym Trainers. "I'm done, so now what do I do?" I asked happily. I was full of confidence, not to mention surprised that other people were still working on their essays still. No one had left yet.

"Me too, sirs." Gregor chimed from the other side of the room.

One of the gym trainers, Ted by the nametag, came up to my computer and saved the file and emailed it to some e-mail address I barely caught. He said after the file was sent, "You save the file and send it to skylagymleaderpokemongym dot net. Congrats, you are free to go. I suggest that you visit the gym and practice your Pokémon in the aerial obstacle course."

I stood up and thanked the gym trainer and gave a thumbs-up to Gregor. After he and I went out of the computer lab I asked, "So was it hard?"

The hero-nerd smirked. "Not really, though the topic should have been clearer in my opinion. I'm sort of a 'brains' person if you get what I mean and that essay was a breeze." He adjusted his glasses and asked, "So how about you?"

"Same. I was homeschooled so I'm used to the essay writing crap." I grinned back at him. "Well, I'm off to practice at the gym, want to come with?" _Why not invite the guy that helped me get a Pidove? After all I was just making friends, not looking for relationships so Malcolm shouldn't mind._

Gregor held up a hand and said, "I'll wait for Bob, but then I'll see you over there."

"Ok." I waved at him and took off to the gym.

It was an uneventful trip there and I quickly observed the obstacle course once I was inside. I pulled out my Pokéball for Pebbles and called out the baby vulture Pokémon. The black bird chirped and fluffed out her feathers indignantly. "Vull be vullaby!"

I held up my hands and apologized to the angry bird. "Sorry, girl. I should take you out more often from now on." I reached into my bag and pulled out my new Pokéchow. "Here, try some of this." I dug my hand into the container and held it out to her. _Food always helped Pokémon make amends, right?_

Pebbles stared at the food and took her time to lean forward and peck at it. She decided it was sufficient and ate it all up, giving me a few pecks in the process. Once she was fed and a little less grouchy, I pointed out the flying Pokémon obstacle course. "That's what we will be practicing on, and I think the goal is to navigate through in as little time possible. So, as my sole flying Pokémon, we should get started."

The Vullaby gave me a cynical look, characteristic of her dark-typing. "Vull…" she grumbled.

"I'll direct you where to fly and then we'll practice on getting through fast, then I'll let you beat up weaker Pokémon or something else that you like. Please?" I pleaded.

Pebbles gave me a bored look and flapped her tiny wings lazily.

I face-palmed and sighed. "Ok, since you are still a newer Pokémon to the team I'll have to earn your respect…" I was about to try Plan B to try to win over a Pokémon's logic, but I was kindly interrupted by the sound of people coming. _Landorus, did I take that long already?_ I stood up and waited for the other trainers to watch them if they would get their Pokémon to fly the course. Maybe rivalry could be a motivator for my stubborn little vulture.

However, the two trainers that entered were much more into their argument than the flying course. And of course Tim and Malcolm had to be the ones who entered in a huge riot of arguments and shouting. _Oh those two…_ they really needed to talk over things without getting defensive! It drove me up the wall to think that they could actually become friends if it wasn't for Tim's people-aversion and Malcolm's over-friendliness.

"Look, get off my case already." Tim shouted, face reddening.

"I'm just trying to be friendly, you don't have to bite my head off! Jeesh!"

I tugged up my sleeves and walked slowly to the bickering boys. I had had enough of their fights and now that I knew their personalities well enough, I should inform them about each other as well… _You two are going to stop this fighting right now…_ I thought, letting my anger build a little. I had to show them that I was serious! I could be mad if I wanted to be!

The emo-man stepped closer to Malcolm as if asking for a fist fight. "If you'd leave me alone and shut up I'd be happy. Don't push me!"

Malcolm noticed me marching up and apologized while Tim gave me a sour look. "Uh, sorry, I didn't know anyone was in here Utopia…" the famous red-head tried to cover for himself.

Tim was about to shoot something back, but I held up both of my hands and said over them "**LOOK **here you two!" **That **got their attention. I would show them not to mess with me when I was fed up with their misunderstandings. I wheeled on the emo first and said in a deadly serious tone, "Just because he's being talkative doesn't mean he wants to annoy you. He just wants to be friendly so don't shut him up with your over-reactive anger." Tim's eyes shrunk a little in fear.

Malcolm was next. "And you," I said in the same tone, "should try to give Tim a little more space. He's not a huge people-person so respect his distance." I looked between both stunned boys and asked, "Do I make myself clear?"

Tim still had his Deerling in the headlights look and he mumbled, "Yes sir… er, ma'am…"

Malcolm was equally scared of my wrath. He nodded quickly and continued to stare at me.

I sighed and smiled. "That's better. It's been annoying the crap out of me to see you two at odds when all that you need is a little communication. Since you weren't going to work it out on your own, I thought I had to." I really did feel strongly about those sorts of things. _Maybe my emotions are out of whack today, I hug people and sympathize and shout at them like little kids … this has been an emotional roller-coaster day. _

Tim and Malcolm where still completely stunned at my burst of temper. If Luke was there I bet he would have been speechless and frozen to. Although I didn't show my temper to a whole lot of people so it was understandable for people to be scared of a sweet girl like me cracking under anger. It just ticks me off when people can't communicate with each other.

Malcolm stammered, "Wow, Utopia… you've surprised me yet again…" he left off and continued staring at me with a half-frightened Lilipup look.

Tim on the other hand was simply confused. He tried to form words a few times, but he couldn't seem to put anything together.

"Well, if you two are done, I want to practice on the obstacle course, isn't that right, Pebbles?" I glared at the bird and she flapped to attention, this time giving me the respect I wanted. "You can join me if you want." I smiled nicely at the two formerly arguing boys and marched back to the gym floor's center. I almost wished I had a camera on hand to capture the looks on their faces forever.

My only hope was that after giving those two a what-for, that they would take my advice and start working together and understanding each other. After all, hadn't destiny somehow connected us in the mission to find a Volcarona a few years ago? Malcolm's uncle funded the whole mission that Luke died on and where I got the Larvesta egg. Maybe if this destiny thing was true then it would be a wonderful idea to get the three of us working together.

**A/N: I suggest you don't try to email anything to skylagymleaderpokemongym dot net, because it doesn't exist :)**

**Anyways, Happy New Year! :)**


	23. Tolerating Malcolm

**A/N: The number 23 is my favorite number… just letting you all know that :) And this is my first update in 2012. I am happy :)**

**Tim's POV**

I could barely think let alone try to talk. Something in Utopia apparently had snapped and she had told Malcolm and I off like an angry teacher. Utopia? Of all the people capable of snapping and turning into a crazed person… I never expected Utopia to do that. She's the bumbling little idiot person that somehow claims to be clumsy with her words, but actually is a social person with many friends. She isn't the type to snap…

Before getting a what-for from the Asian, I had just finished the stupid essay and figured on going to the gym when Malcolm tailed me again and started talking his friendship nonsense. Then we started shouting at each other and then the obvious what-foring happened.

"_I think you should take Utopia's advice, Tim…"_ Luke thought to me while still invisible.

I clenched my teeth and looked at the annoying red-head I was told to 'not shut up with my over-reactive anger'. At least that command was easier than his, which was to back off from me. _Seriously, he's been bugging me for the past few days because I'm the only person that turned down his friendship._

Malcolm seemed as shaken as me at the sight of Utopia's anger, but he held out his hand for a truce. "Hey, sorry about that… maybe I should have been less pushy, you know… I'll give you some space if that's what you want…" he said with a slight apologetic smile. I wanted to try to see if it was a fake or forced smile, but it didn't look like it…

I glanced at the black-haired girl commanding her plump little vulture Pokémon to make sure she wasn't going to snap on us again. Then I sighed and accepted the handshake weakly. "Sure, and I guess I'll try to control my temper…" I wasn't really planning on keeping the promise while Utopia was away, so I could mentally cope with that. It wasn't like I was making friends with him or anything.

Malcolm Kwester pumped my limp hand rigorously, making me wince a little. "Ok, it's a deal!" he beamed. "And then we can maybe even become friends."

_Sure, that's what a competition with only one winner was for… _I thought sarcastically. I wasn't here for making friends, I was here to win. "Whatever…" I mumbled back and removed my hand from his strong grip. I pulled out a Pokéball and said, "Then should we start practicing on the obstacle course?"

"Yeah, as a team!" Malcolm said with gusto and walked up to Utopia cautiously, as if fearing another outburst of unexpected rage. "If you don't mind that is…" he said to the girl.

Utopia, apparently back to her normal self, smiled back at Malcolm. "No problem. I don't mind. Maybe Pebbles will like your Pokémon." _Pebbles… what a disgustingly cute name for a vulture. I could gag._ She looked past him and raised her eyebrows at me. "Well, aren't you going to practice too? Then again you might have to use your Sigilyth instead of your Archen because the fossil won't fly… right?"

_How'd she…?_ I glared at Malcolm and saw the connection. _So these two were teaming up against me already? Was this a cruel joke of theirs to collaborate and gain the advantage of everyone?_ I glared back. "Fine, you two are in cahoots already? Planning to use your team work or whatever you call it to win this competition?" my voice rose in anger. Already I had been duped!

Utopia walked up to me swiftly and I jumped back a little to avoid her possible anger. Instead she put her hands on my shoulders and said firmly, "I'm not planning anything, Tim. I'm just muddling around here and Malcolm is here mainly for friends and to prove himself worthy of his uncles… no wait… cousin's fame." She stared at me with her intense brown eyes and said in a lower voice, "I'm just trying to include you since no one else does."

I froze and drank up her words with shock… Yet again I had underestimated her and her ability to sympathize with people. _She knew… she knew to some extent about me and my loneliness… but how'd she…? She's just a clutz and awkward around people… how did she? And Malcolm… was she telling the truth? He was trying to prove himself… kind of like me. But…_

She smiled and let go of my shoulders. "Sorry, I'm not normally this weird. I just can't stand it when people are at odds because of a simple communication issue. It's kind of funny… but I can't watch TV shows when characters don't get along because of that. I shout at the TV so bad sometimes… But I didn't mean to scare you. I just wanted to get you two off each other's cases."

I continued to stare at her in shock. She was still the normal Utopia, but suddenly she had stepped in to solve a conflict. She was showing more of herself, as if really saying that she was a friend… But what made her that angry to solve things herself? What made her think that she could be the one to bring about justice or peace or whatever the hell she wanted? What was she, a utopia?

I snorted out loud. _Interesting… her name…_ "You are Utopia…" I muttered quietly.

She frowned at me and huffed. "That's what Jamie keeps on saying but I can't understand what she means by it!"

That was the normal Utopia face, the angry Asian. I smirked and said, "Oh come on, don't you know what your name means? How can you be so dull?" I had to tease her to stop all the weird mushy thoughts and feelings taking hold of me. Sure she somehow figured out that I wasn't included with many others because of who I am, but that shouldn't make me feel all that emotional and grateful for understanding. I couldn't dare show it!

"Fletcher means 'arrow maker', I know that." She huffed.

I was still highly amused at her dual alertness to things. Sure she could figure out that I had little friends, but she could barely figure out a simple little riddle a soothsayer said to her. I guffawed to make her annoyed again. "I mean the 'Utopia' part! A utopia is supposed to be an ideal society, idiot. And your little burst of anger somehow reminded me of your ideal society mentality. You were trying to make Malcolm and I forgive and forget to make things more peaceful around here. Or are you really that dim?"

This time Utopia was shocked. "I'm utopia… and ideal society? That's what Jamie meant?" Yup, she really was that dull.

"Well, that doesn't really matter right now, does it? Without practice I don't have a chance of getting to the next round of this contest." I said confidently and walked towards the obstacle course.

Malcolm glared at me and said, "I thought we agreed to work like a team, so no more 'I' business."

"You think you did well enough on the essay to pass?" Utopia asked in a slightly irritated way.

_Wow, I say one thing and suddenly both of them are ripping at me with anger. What kind of 'team' is this? _I turned back to Utopia because I figured that she was more deserving of my attention than Malcolm was. "It wasn't my best, but I think I did well enough to go on." I looked at the red-head through the corner of my eye and replied, "**You** said team, not me. If you keep on forgetting, this is a contest that only lets** one** person win. I plan on it being me. Just me on my own power. I can take care of myself."

"Oh, so you think accepting help from us would only be a drawback to you?" Malcolm frowned at me and crossed his arms almost as if threatening me. "You're too good for friends?"

"I'm not a team person, ok?" I said with raised eyebrows, challenging him to counter me. "And what's the point of a team when there's only one winner? Why don't you understand that in the end **nineteen **people will **fail** to get the job." Why couldn't they understand the way I did? It was a herdier eat herdier world, someone always got the better of someone else.

"_Let's just try to get along, please?"_ Luke appeared in the middle of us three and clasped his ghostly hands together in a pleading gesture.

"Hey, it's Luke!" Malcolm jumped and said, "He's your friend, right?"

I glared at Utopia and said slowly, "Yes…" What was with her and her secret-sharing with Malcolm_? If she told him the full story about Luke I swear I will… I don't know, make her regret it… somehow…_

Utopia always seemed happier when Luke was around. I guessed those two were becoming fast friends. The black-haired girl smiled at the ghost and said, "That's a good idea, Luke. Let's just get on with the practicing and then we can work things out later."

_There she goes with this 'we' nonsense. Why couldn't they understand that I wanted to do this alone? And yet deep down I kind of appreciated being included in something_. As far as I remembered, Luke was my only friend that included me in things he did. Even though our fathers were childhood friends and Luke and I were sort of forced as friends, we got along. But I didn't want to think about the past and the adventures we had in Twist Mountain and the Icirrus marshes…

I looked at the red-head and the Asian and said, "Yeah, ok, we'll…" _damn, I was using the 'w' word myself!_ "Um, I'll work with you two and practice…"

Malcolm gave me a look that still read 'I hate it that you think you can shirk my friendship', but I was used to it by now. _What did I care what he thought?_ "Yeah, fine then lone wolf…" he sniffed back at me.

_Oh boo-hoo._ I wanted to retort, but something held me back. Whether it was my own restraint or the restraint Utopia had told me to show I couldn't tell. I glanced at the Asian girl and frowned at her. _Seriously, an outburst of anger from her shouldn't be enough to make me want to change._ So I figured it was my own self-restraint that kept me from trying to get Malcolm mad.

Utopia rolled her eyes at us. "Seriously you two. You act like bickering siblings or something." She sighed and looked at her Vullaby. "Not that I would know what a sibling would act like though. Do you guys have any siblings?"

She was curious about us; that was my only conclusion. Not only that, but she skipped around subjects so fast I didn't know how in the world her scattered thinking worked. I didn't want to talk about my family, but I answered her just the same. "Nope, I'm the only one." And why did I answer when I clearly didn't want to? No clue really.

Malcolm was keen to talk about himself as usual. "I'm the youngest of my family actually. I have an older brother and sister, but by a lot. My sister is married and living in Opelucid and my older bro is traveling the world."

I tuned out the rest of Malcolm's speech about how great his siblings were and things. I had much better things to focus on. I glanced at my ghost friend and called out his Pokémon. "Ok…" I paused and said as quietly as I could, "Siggy…" I continued in my normal voice, "Let's try out this course, shall we? Maybe Luke could show you it since he's better with you anyways."

Luke floated up to his formerly owned Pokémon and said, _"Come on, Siggy, let's practice on the course. It's cool that now I can practice with you." _He smiled at what Siggy said in Pokéspeak to him and twirled in a circle_. "Right, a race sounds fun!"_

_Ok, that worked. _That left me still with the annoying duo, but I had to be there. I paused and wondered why other trainers weren't coming to the gym to practice like us. _Were we missing out on something or was I just thinking too hard?_

"Hey, have you been listening **at all** to what I've been saying?" Malcolm huffed at me.

I lifted my eyebrows in a cocky way. "Sure, whatever. Your family blah, blah, blah, your Pokémon team blah, blah, blah. Am I right?"

"Now you're just trying to be difficult!" He snapped back at me. Malcolm then noticed that Luke and Siggy were flying around the practice course and said, "That's just low to tell your dead friend to do your work for you."

Now he was aiming a verbal blow at me. I didn't care that he wanted me to get angry back, I had to defend Luke. "Luke gets along better with Sigilyth. He caught it in the first place so shut up about me telling him what to do!" _And there went another story about my Pokémon team. Curse my big mouth and fiery temper._

Utopia was surprised by this bit of information. "That's kind of touching though." She admitted. "You took in your friend's Pokémon… If Luke wasn't made into a Pokémon himself, then it would be kind of like you taking up his Pokémon in his memory."

"Now that's a really mushy way to look at it." I said flatly.

The conversation was dropped after that and Malcolm called out his huge bird. I half-wondered if the bird would be able to make it through the course or if would have to do a weight-watcher's program to make the cut.

The Braviary watched Luke and Siggy practicing on the course and puffed out its feathers in distaste. Then it looked at me and hissed. I guess Malcolm's Pokémon won't like me. _Big whoop. Like I cared in the first place. _

Utopia's Vullaby waddled up to the large bird and poked at it. "Vull… vulla vullaby." It chirped in a surprisingly low tone.

"Brav." The bird replied and flapped its wings a little.

I kind of wished Luke was able to tell me what they were saying. He was a very handy translator, especially for me to understand my Cryongonal. Cryogonals didn't have the gift of expressions so without Luke it was impossible to understand what the Cryogonal was talking about or needed in care.

Malcolm's Braviary flapped its wings again and flew to the course for its turn to practice, along with the Vullaby flapping its tiny wings behind it. Luke and Siggy left the course and hovered by my side politely. _"Siggy's got the course down easy. He is psychic type after all. We'll be ready no problem."_ The Yamask thought to me confidently.

"Calm down there, you sound like your human self …" I muttered. It always stung to hear him talk like he was a trainer again. Not to mention my mind had a terrible habit of remembering what Luke looked like when he was human and the last time I saw him (aka the Cofagrigus' meal).

Luke looked at me sadly and replied, _"Sorry…"_ he knew that it bothered me. After all, he and I had been friends since we were in school if not infants. He and I were the best of friends and we knew everything about each other.

I felt defensive and glared at Utopia to make sure she didn't hear me. I didn't want her getting into my business. It was bad enough that she had to tell me off and note my lack of friends.

"_You know, I think it would be great for you to find friends other than me. Just saying…"_ he thought innocently. _"Utopia's trying to be a friend and Malcolm's friendly to everyone. It's not like your disgracing me by getting new human friends. Really."_

I gave Luke a withering look.

My pocket vibrated, letting me know that I got a text message on my Xtransciever. Utopia and Malcolm also received rings indicating a possibly similar text. I rolled my eyes and pulled out my device and saw that there were actually two messages that I hadn't read. One was from the gym trainer Cliff and the other was from my dad.

I pulled up the one from Cliff and read it. [Trainers, the essays will be graded as you all eat with Skyla at the Pokémon Center. The honorable Gym Leader will eat with you and announce the proceeding trainers afterwards. It would not be wise to miss on this dinner.] _Dinner with Skyla? I guess it was better than picking up a sack lunch and sitting in Chargestone Cave… then again, Chargestone Cave sounded entreating…_

"Great! Dinner with everyone again!" Malcolm cheered after reading his text. He avoided looking at me purposefully.

Utopia gave me a smile as if trying her hardest to include me. "Yeah, I think we might be done with the obstacle course now. Why don't we go together?"

I personally was done with socializing for the day if not week. Seriously, I needed to get away from people for a while! But even so I returned Siggy (gag) to his Pokéball and said, "I guess we are going in the same direction anyways."

"Both Utopia and I know that you wouldn't pass up a chance to eat with Skyla for anything." The red-headed pretender leered.

_You don't know the first thing about me, so shut up._ I wanted to say that so-o-o bad, but I ignored him. No, I was going to tolerate him and act like a nice person while hoping he wrote a crappy essay. Or even better I could try to figure out the tasks ahead of time and make a difficulty for Malcolm as an act of revenge. _Oh, I could plan out so many plots to get him back…_

Utopia and Malcolm returned their Pokémon and started walking to the obvious destination. I followed behind in the slowest possible way.

Utopia wouldn't have that though. The Asian girl linked arms with both Malcolm and me and marched us at her pace. I grimaced at her. She said in a tone that said that she felt like she was higher powered than us, "Today is still my birthday and I would like to have you two walk with me. Ok?" She even added a cocky smile. _She was using her birthday powers with attitude! Maybe I didn't really know the real Utopia, since everything I had seen from her today had contradicted everything I assumed about her._

Malcolm agreed with her and (I could have sworn that he was happy to have his arm linked in hers) kept her pace.

I then noticed the necklace around her neck. _Wait, wasn't she from Lacunosa, the place where they feared an ice-dragon? Then why was she wearing a dragon pendant?_ I voiced my confusion. "So, do you like dragons?"

She gave me a frightened look that confirmed the opposite even before she could say anything back. "Wha-what makes you say that?" she stammered.

"Your necklace." I said simply. My suspicions were confirmed; she was deathly afraid of dragons. If only I had a dragon Pokémon on my team I could completely disable her in a next round of the competition.

Her eyes shrunk and she shook her head quickly, her ponytail whipping around. "It was a gift, so I wanted to wear it. I don't like dragons very much…" she suddenly shivered at a stray gust of wind.

I suddenly regretted thinking about disabling her with a dragon Pokémon. Her reaction to the mere thought of a dragon made me feel guilty and rotten for even thinking about it. "Sorry…" I mumbled.

… _I really needed to get some alone time, I was finding myself acting __**way too nice**__ to Utopia. Just… yeah. _

Even worse, Luke had to point it out to me. "_You feeling ok, Tim? You don't normally apologize to people." _He added a mischievous grin.

_Oh if I could respond by telepathy I would tell him off right there._ Of course I couldn't and I was just left glaring my hate at my friend. We were great friends; strong enough friends that we could be teasing and even frank with each other. I didn't always like his opinions and observations, but he gave them to me anyways. But that was the way Luke was, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Sure he was a ghost but his spirit still lived on. In most other cases of lost friends, Luke had an advantage of still living as a ghost Pokémon.

"Hey, what's with the silence over there?" Malcolm's annoying voice cut through my thoughts. "It's like both of you are hypnotized or something. How about you tell us about your home and family, Utopia?"

I rolled my eyes at Malcolm's need for someone to talk.

Utopia shrugged and said, "Well, there's not much to say about me."

"Oh come on, everyone's important." Malcolm goaded her on.

"If you really want to hear about me, I guess I could say a few things… But I don't want to bore you…" she said modestly.

"It's only a short walk to the Pokémon Center, so that's fine. I couldn't be bored by you."

_Ugh, the humanity! Malcolm was so mushy and a sweet-talker I could barf._

Even so, after his flattery Utopia shrugged and started talking about her parents and soon a quick version of her life was told. She was the only child, raised in Lacunosa, then moved to Anville Town and homeschooled. She liked her parents well enough, but they weren't all that talkative to her. Her first Pokémon was a Lilipup, but she had to give it up from her allergies. Then she received Tympole from Eugene Kwester and she had won a few badges in her single year of Pokémon training thus far. That was all I was able to gather, since we arrived at the Center as she finished with a modest smile. "It's not that incredible or original, but it's me." She released Malcolm and my arms from her grip as we entered the Center. "Well, thanks for practicing with me. It's been a really nice birthday today." Her face was proof enough that she had had a great time.

I nodded and crossed my arms. "Yeah whatever…"

"Let's eat then." Malcolm said in his 'leader' voice as if he was the self-proclaimed leader of an imaginary group.

"_Don't mind if I do."_ Luke giggled at the three of us. Malcolm laughed back, joined by Utopia. I even cracked a small smile.

_Oh Luke… he knew the perfect thing to think to get everyone on a good mood._


	24. Jamie's Warning

**Tim's POV**

"Glad to hear some trainers are having a good time." a feminine voice interrupted Utopia and Malcolm's laughing. I snapped to attention when I heard the voice, recognizing the respect it deserved.

The Gym Leader herself stood by the stairwell, eyeing us calmly. Skyla smiled and said, "It's you again, birthday girl. Why do I keep bumping into you?" her blue eyes sparkled as she looked at Utopia with interest.

Utopia shrugged and said respectfully, "I'm in the gym challenge, so I would think I would meet you several times…"

Skyla shrugged calmly and said, "That's true. But hey, you three are the first trainers to arrive for the meal, so why don't you sit with me?"

I could hardly believe my luck. I wasn't going to have to eat with **complete **idiots; Skyla was going to eat with us! Even though last time she ate with us I sat at her table I wouldn't pass up another chance to eat with her. How could I explain how I felt about a gym leader? She commanded respect but she went out of her way to make us feel welcome. But deep down I knew why I adored her so much…

"Hello, you in there?" the red-headed Gym Leader waved her hand over my face. "You seem kind of spacey."

"Sorry, ma'am…" I stammered and looked down to the ground. She reminded me of either a friendly elder sister or my late mother. Maybe it was a combination of those things. Sure I had to admit she looked great with her outfit, but I wasn't swallowed up in her looks.

The Gym Leader beckoned to me again. "Then come on. Your friends are already downstairs." I was about to say that they were certainly** not** my friends, but she saw Luke hovering by me and interrupted me, "Interesting Pokémon you have there. I don't know much about ghost Pokémon…"

"Yeah, he's a special Pokémon…" I stammered. I wasn't used to this much attention from such a famous person.

I walked down the stairs with her and say that Malcolm and Utopia were already sitting at a large round table, waiting for us. Skyla and I went over to the table and the Gym Leader leaned her elbows on the table in a slightly rude way. "So, I don't really know you guys, but will you tell me about yourselves if I tell you a secret?" she said.

I nodded with Malcolm and Utopia.

Skyla leaned back and said, "Well, I looked over some of the essays and I know that all three of you passed to the next round. So, I'm just curious… Ok, let's start by asking how you like the competition so far, then when things get going I'll ask about you and your backgrounds. I do care about the contestants that promised to spend two weeks here. Especially you, birthday girl, since you stand out a little. Not everyone guides a foreigner for a battle and takes up the job of referee."

So Utopia was telling the truth back a few days ago when she said she refereed for Skyla. I huffed and glared at Utopia simply for her being at the right time and right place.

Malcolm, the eager one to speak, answered her question first, "Well, it's been a great time so far. I mean, I wasn't expecting half the things you threw at us and the recapturing a Pidove part was challenging too. I think that after these few tests I'm ready to try out the cannons in the gym."

Skyla nodded lazily. "So you think the training was unexpected and challenging?" the gym leader glanced at Utopia and said, "Do you agree?"

The Asian nodded and added, "Yes, it has been challenging so far, but if you don't mind me saying, I was expecting a little more…" Skyla didn't seem fazed by the comment and waved Utopia to continue. The younger girl gulped and admitted, "Well, after your initiation speech I thought I was done for, but after I caught the Pidove, things seemed a little easier. I was expecting you to be a drill sergeant and me being sore every night… I guess gaining friendship with a bird and writing an essay weren't the things I was expecting…"

I actually did agree with Utopia on that one. I had readied myself mentally for the challenges when I heard the speech, and the only thing that was really hard was the catching a Pidove part. Seeing it die sucked, but other than that the challenges were pretty shallow.

The Gym Leader nodded. "Did you think that I was wrong to warn you and make things easier? Or maybe to you think that the challenges seemed easy because you were prepared for more?" She left the questions to be left unanswered and turned her attention to me. "Do you agree with your friends about the challenge thus far?"

I said as respectfully as I could, "First off, ma'am, they aren't my friends. Second, I agree with Utopia. And third, I have to say that the diseased birds event shouldn't be repeated."

"You don't need to call me ma'am, Skyla will do." She said, her blue eyes twinkling. "And yes, that was a mishap on my part to let a bird get rabies." Skyla leaned back and said, "So far I like the report on the challenge so far. Each of your answers even tells me a little about you. And the more I know about you, the easier it can be to understand your fighting style. Care to hear what I think about how you fight?" she giggled disarmingly and continued, "I'm no fortune teller, but let me say something and tell me if I'm close or not even."

She looked at Malcolm and said, "Malcolm, you are a bit overconfident with fights and rely on your highly trained team for raw power. Does that sound right?"

Malcolm gulped and said, "You could say that…"

"And you Utopia are less confident with your team and set your expectations for a fight before you even begin. To you the battle is already won or lost in your head when you see the opponent. Is that right?"

Utopia's mouth dropped. "You know my fighting style better than I do…"

"And you… what's your name again?" Skyla paused. I answered her and she apologized. "Right, Tim. Sorry, I knew that. Anyways, your answer was straight to the point. This tells me that you like type advantages and you usually like your battles to be a one hit KO. Sound close?"

I nodded. "That's right."

"That's how I'm a Gym Leader." Skyla proclaimed. "I have to face many challengers and I have to understand how they will fight with a simple sentence or question. It usually works better when the person I'm battling is a Unova-born person and they can speak fluent Unovian, Utopia. Not to mention that I was rushed to take off that day when you refereed for me against that Weyler kid. But in essence reading people is part of being a gym leader. I'm glad I still have my touch." She leaned back and put her hands behind her head.

She continued to talk. "I don't know if you know this, but my grandfather was a great pilot in his day. He flew war planes at first, but after the war ended he kept flying. He delivered all kinds of cargo, from mail to people all across Unova. That was back when Castelia barely had any building about five stories. Then my dad learned to be a pilot like grandpa, and now it's up to me to carry on the family tradition. All I carry is cargo though; I don't need to fly passenger planes because of the hidden machine Fly. But even so, it's like nothing else on earth. Making a hunk of steel fly in the air… it's simply magic."

I didn't mind that she had been talking for a while. Sure I was up to here with being around people, but Skyla's story was very interesting. By the time Skyla was done with her talking other had started to make their way to the same table.

"Oh, and another thing," Skyla perked up from her reminiscing. "The text Cliff sent you was purposefully deceiving. Not everyone got that text. In other words, if you got the text to come here to eat, you passed. Others who didn't meet standards were sent to the hanger to gather up their stuff. Also, there are a total of ten people who will go on to the next rounds. It'll be a small enough group for us to all get to know each other." She stood to her feet and waved the rest of the trainers in. "Join us, the table's big enough for all of us."

I turned and noted that the rest of them, six to be exact, walked in hesitantly. The seventh came in a little and said, "Um, I'm just wondering… I know that the people that didn't make it are supposed to leave while we eat, but can I say goodbye to Bob?"

"Gregor?" Utopia asked. She obviously had met the nerdy looking person before.

Skyla shrugged. "Don't stay too long. I want everyone to feel like a team now. But yes, I'll let you say goodbye to your friend Bob."

"Can I go too? I know Bob and I would like to see him off." Utopia stood up and addressed the Gym Leader.

"You too." The red-headed leader said with a smile.

I stayed in my seat. I didn't know Bob or really care that he didn't make the cut. Now I had a one in ten chance of becoming the winner. But something didn't make sense to me; why cut the team of people so little now? _We were only four days into the challenge and now our numbers were halved? What was Skyla thinking by cutting it this low so early on?_

I glanced over to see that I was stuck at a table with Malcolm, since Skyla had stood up while I was thinking and was talking with the others that were going on. I avoided looking at Malcolm and tried to see if I could identify the people going on with us. There was a sailor-looking guy, a dark-skinned dreadlocked guy, a guy with a guitar case on his back, a person in a ridiculous harlequin costume, a jogger, and a pilot-looking guy. _Strange, where was that creepy blonde chick that asked about Luke two days ago? I guess she didn't make the cut._

Utopia came back down the stairs and called out Malcolm and my name. "Hey, Malcolm and Tim, Jamie's got to leave the competition! We should all say goodbye to her since we did all sit together on the first night."

I inwardly groaned. _Why did she want me to go out to say farewell to a person I hardly knew and didn't like?_

Malcolm wouldn't take no for an answer and glared at me. "She means both of us, so come on."

I heaved a sigh and apologized to Skyla before walking miserably to the stairs. _Why was I still viewed as a team member by Malcolm? Why wouldn't he just leave me alone? _

I walked up the stairs and followed Utopia a short ways to the group of rejected trainers. A rich boy was protesting loudly to one of the gym trainers about how he should not have been cut out of the competition because he was the biggest bird fanatic or what not. I didn't care. I sighed and joined Utopia and Malcolm by Jamie, the strange blonde and pink-haired lady.

Jamie nodded to us as a group and said, "I knew I wouldn't make it to the next round. I'm completely fine with it, as you should be too. I came to this competition to meet you three, not to win. I want to tell you three a few things before taking off." She said in her dull tone.

_What was she, a soothsayer?_ I thought critically.

The woman turned to Malcolm first and said, "I don't want to spoil anything for you about the future, but keep these two close to you and lend your strength. There's something coming and your optimism will be crucial."

Malcolm glanced to Utopia and shrugged. "Um… ok? But wait, you can see the future? What's this big thing coming?"

Jamie didn't answer him and turned to me with her strange pupil-less gaze. "Show everyone that you are serious about your vow. Don't try to earn favor for Simon, do it for yourself. If you are serious about being a Pokémon trainer, then fulfill your vow."

I couldn't believe my ears for the second time that day. "What kind of trick are you pulling? How do you know..?" _Her riddles… I knew what she was inferring… but how could she know? _

The strange person continued her stare. "I know that you came here by persuasion that **I **gave your father. It wasn't by accident that you are in the company of these two."

"You told my father to send me here?" I nearly lunged at her. _What was this? She wasn't serious, right?_ I couldn't put together any words to express my confusion. This was just so strange! _But if my father really did talk to her, assuming she was a soothsayer and not some fake, then she would know a little about me and then her first warnings would make more sense… but still!_

Utopia, as usual, was curious about my reaction to her words. But she respected the setting and simply said to me, "Calm down, Tim."

I glared at her. _Since when did she have the right to tell me anything?_

Jamie looked at Utopia and smiled. "You are Utopia… I wish you luck as the challenge goes on, and that you find yourself in it." she held out a small slip of paper and placed it in Utopia's hands. "When your greatest fear rears its ugly face, I can offer help." _So the slip of paper is her Xtransceiver number. _I noted.

The strange soothsayer nodded to the three of us and said, "This isn't the end of seeing me. I'm requested to stay out of Mistralton for the duration of the contest, but I won't be far away." She grinned strangely and said, "I'll meet you three in Icirrus."

_What was she thinking?_ First off, that was my hometown, so what right did she have to meet us there? And secondly, what made her think that all three of us would go and see her? I wasn't planning on hanging around them for long now that I had made it this far in the challenge.

The blonde picked up her large bag and waved clumsily at us. Then she turned around and started walking in the direction of Twist Mountain.

"Bye Jamie, it was nice meeting you…" Utopia called and waved back.

Malcolm shrugged and waved as well.

I only glared at her. _So she's responsible for me getting in this contest, is she? _I wasn't inclined to obey what she said to me. Only Luke and I knew what I had vowed to, so she couldn't tell me what to do.

"I'm going to Opelucid to meet up with Chad. We'll be waiting for you, ok?" I heard a person say in the group of leaving trainers. I glanced over and saw that a greasy guy with a helmet was talking with the Gregor guy Utopia identified earlier. I could guess that the greasy mechanic was Bob.

The nerdy guy nodded and said, "Ok then, I'll see you later then."

The greasy person nodded. "I guess I can't work on Skyla's planes, but at least I'll still train to be a great trainer. You too, don't give up just because your friends are somewhere else."

I rolled my eyes. The socialness overload was making me nervous and needing alone time. I had to think things over, especially about that weird stuff Jamie was talking about. If only I didn't need to eat with Skyla I would be in Chargestone Cave right now. I looked at Malcolm and Utopia still watching Jamie walk to the north of town. I could make my break right then.

I walked back to the Pokémon Center as quickly as I could. I ignored the duo calling out my name and was in the cafeteria before they could catch up with me. Luke held back from thinking anything to me, which meant that he probably was saving it for when I wanted to get away from others.

I flopped down on the chair I was sitting at before and sighed. I wasn't even in the mood to talk with Skyla. She seemed to sense my bad mood and held off from asking me questions. Good, that was the best move she could have made. At least she understood to leave me alone. Once Utopia and Malcolm caught up with me I probably would be asked by them what was up with me.

I didn't ask to be in this competition. Sure I liked and respected Skyla, but it wasn't originally my intentions to travel through Twist Mountain to try to be a flying-type gym trainer. My dad was so fed up with me that he went to a soothsayer to get advice on what to do with me. I had entered the test thinking that if I could just win this, it I would win my father's favor and he would leave me alone and not call me worthless anymore. But now Jamie said not to try to earn Simon's (my dad's name) favor and earn it for myself. That wouldn't help anything! What was she even talking about?


	25. The Top Ten

**Utopia's POV**

I sighed and let my hand fall back to my side. I stared after Tim and wondered how Jamie had upset him so easily. I glanced back at my sole female friend from the competition. She and Clara were not going to the final ten; I was the last girl… the last girl that could break Skyla's male-dominated gym. It was all up to me now…

"What's eating Tim? He's usually grumpy, but now he seems more… I dunno, reactive." Malcolm observed at my side.

I shrugged. "Something Jamie said to him really irked him I guess. Something about a vow and a Simon person…" I pounded my fist in my left palm and mused, "So Jamie and Tim did sort of know of each other then. She said that she told his father to send him here…" Another small mystery about Tim was solved… sorta… but **why** was he sent here? Didn't he like Skyla enough to join on his own free will? I couldn't help that I was so curious about a secretive person. It was almost like he was feeding my curiosity by being vague.

Malcolm shrugged. "All that soothsayer told me was to be like a supporting cast to you two. I mean, what's up with that? There's got to be something wrong with that. You and I both know that I'm more of a leader than you and Tim combined."

I nodded. "You do seem like a leader kind of person… And Jamie reminded me that I'm an ideal society… and that I will find myself in this competition, if not with this weird thing that she sees coming up in the future or something. But then again, I don't believe that anyone can see the future." I had to give Tim some credit; he solved the whole 'you are Utopia' riddle (and called me stupid for not seeing it as well).

I almost couldn't believe that she knew that I was still unsure of myself and what career I would want in the future. Was she serious? Was I really going to discover who I was? But then again her predicting seemed too vague and accurate at the same time. Unless she was some sort of future-seeing person or Pokémon, there was no way her words could be true… and yet I wanted them to be…

"Hey, you're spacey again." Malcolm observed and I blushed in embarrassment. The red-head shrugged and asked, "Tim seems to do it too. I'm just wondering if it's just an only child thing or if you're contagious…"

"Hey!" I felt a strange mix of annoyance and amusement. "I'm not contagious and it's not an only-child thing. I just think a lot and sometimes I forget about the things around me…" I protested. _So what, I thought a lot. That means I was smart, right?_

I sighed at Malcolm and he responded by flashing me a friendly grin. I then turned back to the dispersing group of trainers that were cut from the competition. I suddenly felt over-privileged, like a rich kid in a ghetto. I had made it but the others didn't. And Bob, a friendly and talkative tinker, wasn't going to join the Top Ten.

I walked over to Gregor and Bob still giving each other their goodbyes. I gave Bob a sad smile and said, "It was nice meeting you Bob."

The grease monkey grinned back and offered his dirty hand for a shake. "Same here, and congrats. Watch out after my friend, ok?" Bob cackled.

Gregor smiled slightly. "Whatever, Bob. I'm the one watching out after you. Have a great trip to Opelucid. If you find any new Pokémon give me a buzz." The hero-nerd scoffed back playfully.

Bob took his hand back from his intended shake and shouldered his large backpack. "Yeah. I'm going to fly there on my awesome Skarmory thing. And once you guys are done with the contest, why don't you join us at Opelucid?" he took out a gritty-looking Pokéball and waited for my answer.

I inwardly dreaded going anywhere near a dragon-type gym with a dragon-type gym leader roaming the streets. Sure I heard it was a nice place, one side of it completely modernized and the other preserved from its founding days. But it wasn't like I was going to fight the gym leader… "Sure, I'll give you a call then?" I said as confidently as I could when it came to dragons.

Bob the builder nodded and said to Gregor, "You can give Utopia my number, ok pal?" he called out the metal bird Pokémon and jumped on its stainless steel back. "Until later, _Allons-y_!" he called and commanded his bird to fly northward to the modern and ancient city.

"What's _allons-y_ mean?" Malcolm muttered over my shoulder.

I shrugged. "I have no idea…"

Gregor said simply, "It's French for 'let's go' but Bob uses it like 'goodbye'. It's an inside joke for us."

I nodded and said, "So, I guess it's just you left of your trio of friends? I think that you'll do great, Gregor… You're certainly the smartest one here."

The hero-nerd grinned back. "Thanks, Utopia."

…

Once that was all done, the last ten of us sat around the table and all of our attention was focused on Skyla. Well, all of us except for Tim (or Timothy), who seemed like he was in a terrible mood. I shrugged inwardly and continued to wait on Skyla.

The red-haired Gym Leader smiled casually and said, "So, I'll let you guys dig into some food. Then I want to hear about each and every one of you people. Go on, eat something."

Malcolm stood to his feet first, but the jogger and pilot people were taking up food first. I joined Malcolm in the line and in no time the ten of us plus Skyla were eating the buffet food. Malcolm had his plate stuffed with layers of food as usual while my plate was divided in three to avoid the foods mixing. I had the pudding and Oran Berries once again, complemented by some barbequed fowl of some sort. Then again so many foods are over-processed that what I was eating could have been made artificially. I didn't really care since it tasted good and if it was made artificially, then no Pokémon were killed for me to eat.

And there I go again about food…

"So, I'll start with myself." Skyla said once she finished a bite of some sort of pasta and we were all at the table again. "I'm Skyla, I'm twenty five years old, and I'm from Mistralton. My Pokémon are Swanna, Unfezant, and Swoobat and I've been a gym leader for three years so far. And my favorite color is blue." She smiled and addressed all of us, "now I want all of you to say some basic facts about yourself and even a few random facts you might like to add, like the fact that flying planes has been in my family for at least three generations. I want a name, age, badge number (as in badges you have won), Pokémon team, and hometown, then maybe your favorite color or Pokémon." She pointed to the dreadlocked guy and said, "You first."

The dancer person swallowed his last mouthful and said, "I'm Guy Fellow, and I just want to say that I'll become a famous trainer that can dance as he fights. Anyways, I'm from Nimbasa, and I'm seventeen years old… what else? Oh yeah, I've got five badges and my Pokémon are Woobat, Emolga, Sawsbuck, and Pansear."

The next person in line was Malcolm. The red-head said with a flourish, "I'm Malcolm Kwester, cousin of the Kwester trio if you like. I'm seventeen as well and I've earned seven badges during my two years of training. I have a Darmanitan, Conkeldurr, Braviary, and a Cottonee as my team. My hometown is Accumula town and… I don't know… I like all Pokémon and all colors. I'm very honored to be this far in the competition."

_So Malcolm had seven badges? SEVEN?_ I had been training for one year as of today and I had only earned three. Even the Guy Fellow person had five badges. I felt like an underachiever compared to them. I noticed that all eyes were turned to me and I stammered, "Oh, right… I'm Utopia Fletcher and I just turned sixteen today, as you all know already… thanks again for the presents… Oh sorry, I don't mean to be so…" I cleared my throat and completed the list as fast as I could while my face flushed. "I have three badges, I'm from Lacunosa Town, and My Pokémon team is Palpitoad, Sundaz-I-mean-Larvesta, Vullaby and Stunfisk… And I'm the only girl left in the competition…" _Great, I had to state the obvious…_ I stared at my lap and tried to make my face cool down.

Tim gave me a critical look and said in a flat voice, "Timothy Feldman (call me Tim), nineteen, two badges, Yamask, Archen, Cryogonal, and Sigilyth, Icirrus."

I jumped up from my embarrassment in surprise. He was nineteen and only had **two** badges? Suddenly I didn't feel like I was that far behind.

Skyla nodded, "So, where did you get your badges from, Tim?"

He replied quickly, "I have a Jet and Quake badge."

Skyla frowned. "Strange, why don't I remember battling you before?"

Tim shrugged. "I was using a different Pokémon, a Carcosta. My father lent it to me."

"I would have sworn you had a different hair color…" the Gym Leader shrugged and looked at Gregor. "Ok, you next."

I eyed Tim again. Then again, black hair didn't seem to be a natural hair color on his pale skin. _Was he really a blonde?_ I kind of snickered at the thought of seeing a blonde Tim. _But still…_ and what was a Carcosta again? And why did he only have the badges on the western side of Unova (except the Freeze badge from Brycen)?

The hero-nerd smiled and said, "Thanks, Leader Skyla. I'm Gregor Niles from Driftveil City. This actually is my first gym challenge and it's not going to be my last. I want to be a Gym Leader, thanks to Clay, and I'm going to put everything I can into this. Anyways, I'm sixteen years old and I have six badges, just the Freeze and Legend badge left. My team is six strong; Throh, Purrlion, Tranquill, Gothorita, Bearartic, and Fraxure. I can't say that I have a favorite Pokémon species, but my Fraxure and Gothorita are the best Pokémon a trainer could want."

I shuddered to think Gregor had a Fraxure as one of his favorite team mates… if I ever had to battle him I might faint at the sight of the dragon, and that would be very embarrassing! And Gregor was my age and had six badges… maybe Tim and I were the ones behind. And yet it didn't make much sense. Tim was way stronger than me with his Pokémon. He beat Malcolm, who had seven badges. How did that work?

I suddenly remembered a phrase he had said while telling me about how Luke died, _"…but even so I couldn't bring myself to train Pokémon after Luke died and became one…"_ And Luke had died a few years ago, which meant that… _did Tim have a break in his training to help Luke? Was that the reason he was so experienced and yet had so few badges? _

I groaned silently as I realized that once again I was way too curious about Tim. In fact, my daydreaming had cost me a couple people talking about themselves. _Landorus, now I'll have to somehow come up with an excuse for not catching their names later._

"Still spacey as before, Utopia? I guess you still haven't changed." A familiar voice broke my thoughts.

I snapped to attention and looked around the table. _Since when was there someone that knew me?_ I was in this contest alone, just me and the new friends I made. I zeroed in on the guy who had spoken, a familiar looking person I had identified as the guitarist. "Um… yeah… I'm sorry, I don't recognize you…" I felt my face getting red again. _Oh these moments of telling someone that you forgot them… I hate them so much._

"Landorus, Utopia, you have a bad memory. It's me, your pal Ouri from Lacunosa." The green-haired guy with a beanie on his head said with a grin.

My memories arranged themselves and I face-palmed for not recognizing him sooner. How could I forget my pal from Lacunosa? It had been at least six years since I had seen him last! We had been pen pals for a while after I moved, but that had stopped. "Ouri Greene! How could I forget? I'm so sorry… Hey, how's things been going? You still live by the clock over there?" I said happily. I couldn't have been happier to find a person who I knew from a while ago. He shared my fear of dragons, along with his pretended allergy of Pokémon just to make me feel better. "And what in Landorus' name brought you to Mistralton?"

Skyla smiled. "You two know each other then?"

Ouri, my green haired friend, nodded. "Utopia moved away six years ago and it's really cool to see her here. I came because I wanted a gym badge and heard that this was going on, so I joined it. I guess she had the same idea. We're both from Lacunosa Town and it's such a coincidence that we are in this same contest and in the top ten. What can I say, I think Lacunosa raises up some great trainers."

"Yeah! Man, it's great to see you again Ouri…." I mumbled. He used most of the same expressions I used when I was still ten years old. Actually the 'Landorus' curse was his idea and we used it together. We were chummy alright. _Why didn't I recognize him sooner?_ Maybe it was because now we were both sixteen and we had changed a lot in six years, not to mention puberty.

I sat back in my chair and stared at my childhood friend. "We should catch up after dinner, alright?" I could swear Tim was giving me a glare from the corner of his eye. Then again, when was Tim **not** glaring?

Ouri continued with his general information. "Well, as you can tell my name is Ouri Greene from Lacunosa, friend of spacey Utopia over there. I'm sixteen and I have about five badges on me. My team is Galvantula, Scraggy, Escavalier, and Swanna. Oh yeah, and Klang. Gotta prepare myself you know. Klang's really great for protection if you know what I mean." Ouri winked at me, letting me know that it was probably to combat Kyurem if we ever had to encounter it. After all, ice was weak against steel-type.

"I've never thought of Klang to be good protection. I usually think along the lines of a Darmanitan or Stoutland for that. But if it works, then good for you." Malcolm said with a show of Pokémon knowledge. Malcolm did exceedingly know things about Pokémon, and even had that all memorized. He wasn't the smartest, but he had things going for him.

"So what was your starter Pokémon?" I asked Ouri.

"Actually it was Joltik who grew into Galvantula. He's a strong little bug." Ouri said with a grin.

"Ok, next up." Skyla continued the circle so that all of the top ten trainers could get their say within dinner time.

The next guy, the pilot-looking person, said, "I'm Pavel Rostami of Mistralton. I've been training to be in Skyla's gym now for several years. I'm eighteen years old with eight Unovian badges. My team is composed of Bouffalant, Ruflet, Vullaby, Unfezant, and Swoobat." He seemed to clack his shoes together as a military person would.

_He was really into being a Gym trainer!_ I could almost feel my enthusiasm for trying to win this going down the drain. This Pavel guy was way more dedicated to winning and bird Pokémon. How did I stand a chance? My fighting instincts were pretty much aligned with my outlook on life as well; I already saw my fight lost.

The last guy was up. This was the goofy-looking harlequin. He gave a mock bow and said, "My name is Albertus Lahti, Albert for short. I'm from Nimbasa as well, though I was in partial employment at Castelia Gym. You know, I wanted to get out and see other gyms… Anyways, I'm twenty years old, I think the oldest of you, second to Tim over there." He pointed to Tim's sour face with a goofy grin. "And my Pokémon are versatile, I have a Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Victini…" he stopped and laughed at himself. "Whoops, sorry, that's not my team!"

_It better not be because owning a Kyurem would give me a heart-attack!_ I thought angrily. I could guess that Ouri, my fellow Lacunosa resident, understood that you do not ever,** ever** joke around with something like Kyurem!

"I meant to say that my team members are Alomomola, Dwebble, Maractus, Excadrill, and Sigilyth. I have to say it's pretty interesting that the two oldest here have desert Pokémon." Albertus shot Tim another grin, which was only returned with a glare. "Oh yeah, and I almost forgot to mention that I have all eight badges… had them for a while now."

Skyla nodded. "So, looks like the youngest here is Dan at fifteen and the oldest is Albert at twenty. That's a pretty good range; the teenaged years. And you all come from different towns and have different teams. Now that I know some basic information about you, a can go ahead and start testing you." The red-headed leader leaned back in her chair and said, "From now on there will be no elimination rounds. You are now free to leave when you feel like giving up. Now that the flippant competitors are gone, I can push you to your physical limits more." She looked at us in turn and asked in her creepy way, "Are you scared now? Things will only be uphill from now on."

I gulped and felt the seeds of woe and fear take root. _Everything had been bearable until now. What if I didn't have a chance? Pavel the pilot was way more experienced; heck he even had all eight badges! What did I have against him?_

But that was my only strength, my only motivation. I wasn't experienced and I was a girl. That put me at a disadvantage, but if I pulled through, it would be an even greater accomplishment. I was an under-lilipup! I even had melodrama on my side! _Ok, maybe not to the extent of melodrama, but everyone loved an under-lilipup, right?_

"I'm ready!" the strange harlequin said with a cackle.

Skyla shrugged. "Ok, I haven't scared any of you yet, but I can promise I will have you wondering about if you really wanted this or not. Ok, tonight I will assign you a partner and a gym trainer you will start out with. You'll learn from each of them tomorrow which is a Friday. I'll have to give you guys a break on Sunday…" she paused and seemed to be planning ahead. She snapped out of it and said, "Oh, and since our group is smaller, I can reserve you ten rooms in this Pokémon Center."

I nearly jumped out of my seat. _We finally get to sleep in the Pokémon Center rooms? Hallelujah!_ "Sweet!" I couldn't help saying.

"Ok, so after I assign you partners, you can go and retrieve your stuff from the hanger. Besides, the days are getting shorter and I don't want frosted wings on my planes. I need the hanger for better purposes now." Skyla said with a wave of her hand.

"Before you pair us off, I would request to be partnered with Utopia."

I jumped and gave the speaker, Tim, my weirdest stare possible_. Ok, since when did that happen?_ I thought he still loathed me and wouldn't hesitate to order his Archen to attack me. "Say wha?"

Skyla did seem surprised and slightly amused. "And why is that, Tim?"

The black-haired guy kept his gaze away from me as he replied, "I can't tolerate anyone else here." He said it so seriously… I was impressed at his lack of emotion. _But still, why me?_ I secretly wanted to be partnered with Malcolm or Ouri since they were nice and friendly to me.

The Leader looked at me and asked, "It's fine with me. I was going to put you two together anyways… Are you ok with that, Utopia?"

I hid my confusion and said calmly, "Sure, I can tolerate him as well…" _I should have mentioned that we were sort of friends, but Tim always seemed allergic to the word 'friend'._ I nodded and tried to add in a more positive way, "We can work together as partners." _At least I think so…_ I mentally added.

Skyla shrugged. "It's done then, Utopia Fletcher and Timothy Feldman. Your first Gym trainer will be Brady. You'll get a text tomorrow morning to find him. Ok, I'm letting each team chose their group name, so discuss that tonight and tell me by texting Cliff.

"Next team will be Ouri Greene and Guy Fellow. You two will report to Arnold.

"Team three will be Dan Aviv and Pavel Rostami and your reporting trainer will be Ted.

"Team four will be led by Cliff and the members are Malcolm Kwester and Archie Graham.

"Team five will be Gregor Niles and Albertus Lahti will start with Chase." She looked around the table and said, "I chose you in pairs that I thought would complement the other. Smarts go with enthusiasm and that stuff. Now would be a great time to meet with your partner, get to know them, agree on a team name, and the like. You are dismissed."

**A/N: You might want to reference this chapter quite a bit since I'm introducing six new characters. **_**I'm**_** even going to be using this chapter for reference in the future.**

**Anyways, please review, I like hearing from readers. And thanks so much for the support of this story so far. Thank you very much :)**


	26. Team Name

**Utopia's POV**

As soon as Skyla dismissed us, Tim stood up and said to me in a slightly degrading tone, "Ok, if we really need to cooperate and decide on a team name, then follow me."

I protested, "Um, as nice as that sounds, I'm going to talk with my old friend a little before that. I haven't talked to him for six or so years." I wasn't going to let Tim push me around, though I was still curious about why he insisted on us being partners. _Why have me tag along with him?_ We only bumped heads and ended up hating each other.

"You can talk to him later. Right now you are my teammate and you will follow me." Tim said firmly.

"I might be your teammate but that doesn't mean I have to follow you around like a lost Lilipup. I've got plans too." I shot right back. It was going to be a matter of wills for this fight.

The argument was shorter than I expected. Tim gave me an exasperated look and replied, "Fine. Meet me in Chargestone Cave then." He made haste to the door. It was as if he was trying to get fresh air or something. Maybe he was allergic to something in the room. Then again he could have been eager to get out of the basement because there were so many people in it.

I shrugged and saw Malcolm standing by me. He put a hand on my shoulder and stated, "Be careful around that guy, ok?"

"I got this. Remember the obstacle course? I can fend for myself." I gave him a thumbs-up back.

The red-head patted my shoulder and agreed. "Ok." He gave me a huge smile and said, "Yeah, you sure showed the both of us that you can handle yourself. If he gets too annoying I can always help you out."

"Thanks, Malcolm." I said and meant it. He was so nice it made me feel undeserving again. "Hey, would you like to meet Ouri?"

Malcolm nodded. "I might have met him in passing, but I'd love to be re-introduced. Any friend of yours is a friend of mine."

I smiled and waved Ouri over. "Hey, Ouri, this is my friend Malcolm Kwester."

My old friend walked up and crossed his arms. "Wow, Utopia. I guess you really have changed, but just a bit. You weren't usually a person that went around making friends so easily." The green-haired guitarist reached out his hand and said, "I believe that we met before, but it's nice to be formally introduced."

Malcolm shook Ouri's hand with vigor. "Yup, same here. Hey, why didn't you mention that you were friends with Utopia when we were having that party on the computer lab?"

The younger shrugged. "You didn't ask I guess. And yeah… I also didn't want to fail the essay and say hi only to take off again. I guess I never bumped into her until now…" That was pretty similar to what I remembered of Ouri. He was a nice person that wasn't all that outgoing. We were shy kids back then.

"I still can't believe that you were here all this time. I thought I was all alone in this competition." I said happily. "And tell me about your Pokémon journey and stuff. How in the heck did you get five badges?"

Ouri adjusted the guitar case on his shoulder and responded, "First you've got to tell me how in Landorus' name you ended up with only three badges! Come on, Utopia, you can do better!" he laughed. He was comfortable and confident while talking to me, but he barely knew Malcolm and his talking was radically different. Though I think most people are like that when they are in the company of friends.

"I thought I was doing well for my team, then all of you end up with five and," I gave Malcolm a playful look, "seven badges! Seriously, how do you pull that off?"

"Practice." Both of them said at the same time. They gave each other confused looks, and then followed it up with a high-five.

Ouri grinned at the red-head and said to me, "You've got good choice in friends, though I wonder about that other guy, your partner. Tim, right? He seems kind of blunt and emo, don't you think? And he only had two badges?"

I shrugged. "He's not really an emo… And I'll be fine. He's just got issues." I paused and realized that I had countered my original thoughts that Tim was the emo. But after hearing about him losing his friend to a coffin Pokémon and the like, I couldn't blame him for being a wreck. _Maybe I was starting to sympathize with him…_

"So do you know why he requested to have you as a teammate?" Ouri asked. "It's obvious he's not a boyfriend or anything."

I gave Ouri a little punch on the arm. "I'm not getting any boyfriend on this challenge! I'm going to try to win!"

The green-haired guy shrugged. I obviously punched like a girl… obviously. "Ok, so what have you been up to? Been ok with the Pokémon allergies?"

Malcolm raised his eyebrow to that. I nodded to Ouri and said, "Yeah, I haven't had a bad case of allergies for a while, though Gregor's Purrloin didn't sit well with me…"

"And doesn't Gregor have a Fraxure?"

I nodded and we both shivered, leaving Malcolm a little confused.

"So your teammate is Guy Fellow? Good luck with that." At least he could start over fresh with his partner. Chances are that they had never met before. I had Timmy-Tim-Tim to deal with and our already four day long hate-fest.

"Yeah, hey, was your friend… what was her name…? Jamie? You said that she left the competition. Did you know her well?" Ouri continued.

"Yeah, well, sort of. She was the oldest in the competition I think and she claimed to be a soothsayer and gave Malcolm, Tim, and I some advice before leaving." I shrugged. It felt great to catch up with my old bud again, but I felt that I was kind of ignoring Malcolm in the process. I decided to make an excuse to talk later and try to find my irritable and wayward partner. "So, I think I'd better find Tim and stuff. I'll talk to you later, ok?" I waved to both Ouri and Malcolm and made my way to the stairs. _Today was certainly a very interesting birthday._

…

I stared at the entrance of the cave with slight apprehension. I didn't like traveling through Chargestone Cave less than a year ago and I didn't like the thought of it now. I remembered getting paralyzed by Joltiks and fighting off Klinks and navigating through the gloomy blue cave lit up by the electricity that the Pokémon from there lived on. It wasn't my favorite place. I inhaled to calm myself and started into the gloomy cave. It was already dark out, so I could barely see inside the cave.

I climbed up the stairs and felt my hair rising from the static electricity. I was thankful that my hair was in a ponytail, or else it would have been standing straight up. I gulped and pushed on. Tim was somewhere in this cave. And once I found him I could ask to get out of the cave and maybe try to get along with him since we were partners by Skyla's word.

I spotted a person in the gloom, sitting on the ground and leaning his head back on the wall. I could see Luke floating around close by, so it couldn't be anyone but Tim. I walked closer and saw that his eyes were closed. Was he sleeping in a place like this?

His dark eyes opened lazily. "I heard you coming." He said in a strange, peaceful sort of tone.

"Um, what's up with you?" I sniffed the air to make sure he wasn't doing some sort of illegal drugs or beer. He was so relaxed I could only guess it was induced. "You feeling normal?"

He sighed sleepily and said, "More normal now that I'm here." He closed his eyes and said, "Sit down, we need to talk as partners."

_What was with his orders?_ "I'll sit down when I want to. I don't think you're the leader of this partnership." I huffed. He seemed completely at peace while I was snapping back at him. "Were you smoking something in here? Luke, was he smoking or drinking anything?" I turned to his more truthful ghost friend.

Luke held up his shadowy hands in the gloom. _"It's ok Utopia. He's acting normally. He's just more relaxed in a cave."_ I could only see his golden mask and glowing red eyes in the bluish light.

Tim sat up with no apparent hurry. "Like Luke, said, I'm much more at home in caves. I'm sorry if it offends you in some demented way." He said with a dark grin. He was using sarcasm on me! "I was uptight back there because I was fed up with being around so many people. I need some time in a cave to keep my sanity."

"Oh, so you want to stay in this place? I want to get out of it." I said and hugged my arms. "This place always gives me the creeps."

"What's so creepy about it?" Tim said calmly. "There's many Pokémon living around the electric rocks, minding their own business. If you listen closely, you can hear the buzzing of the electricity and the paw-steps of the Pokémon living here. It's a unique cave. Some say that Zekrom hit this place with a fusion bolt and the rocks have stored the energy from that attack and are releasing it for the Pokémon here. You can't find Joltik, Ferroseed, Tynamo, or Klink anywhere else in this region…" he gave me a critical look, "By now you should be able to tell that I'm an archeologist type of trainer, maybe even a spelunker."

I simply stared at this very different sort of Tim. With his calm mood I could have sworn his full name of Timothy fit him better. "And you are absolutely sure that you are still the Timothy Feldman I got attacked by with an Archen? You're seriously on something."

Luke thought to me pleasantly, _"I guess today is a day of surprises. You surprised us with your shouting and use of birthday powers, and now Tim's introducing you to his favorite place, the caves. Now you get to be surprised by Tim's behavior."_

I shrugged and sat down a little off from him. I still didn't think this was the same irritable person.

Tim paused a while, as if soaking up the electricity for himself. He took a deep breath and said, "So, partner, I don't know how long we are partners, but I think we should call a truce and work together."

"Sure, like your 'truce' with Malcolm… and why did you tell Skyla that you couldn't stand anyone else but me?" I replied.

Tim reached into his backpack and pulled out a small gas lamp. He turned it on with a hiss and set the lantern on the ground to give light to our part of the cave. Only with the lantern could I see more of the vastness of the electric cave. He turned to me and said, "What, you think I would want to share Luke's tale with another person? Sooner or later a person would want to ask. This way you already know and I don't have to explain. Happy?"

"Oh, so you didn't want to talk more than you needed to. You're a lazy person." I scoffed.

He stared at me with a slightly more serious look. He looked a little scary with the lamp-light illuminating his face. He sat back and continued as if I hadn't commented. "Ok, so what do you think the gym Trainers will have us do? Teamwork will be involved… any thoughts?"

I shrugged. "I dunno, we'll find out tomorrow, right?"

He sighed and explained, "That's what I **don't** do. I like to plan ahead, not simply wait for things to happen. If you plan ahead you have a better chance of being prepared and we'll have a much easier time as we get on in the challenge. Skyla warned us about it getting harder from here on out, so I'm not sitting on my hands."

So my hunch about him being a strategist and such was true. He was certainly more of a plotter than I was, even though I did think about putting Pokémon herb in someone's food on the first night. "Ok, but I don't know what to expect…" I admitted. I stared at the distant glowing blue rocks in the cave and I swore I could feel the calmness of a cave.

He sighed and continued to talk. "Fine then. So what are your weaknesses?"

"My what?" I raised my eyebrows at him.

"If we have to double battle or have to cooperate in any way, then we need to know each other's weaknesses and cover them. I've already noticed that you fear Kyurem and most dragon-types. I have Cryogonal to freeze any dragons out, so that's covered. What else do you fear or are incapacitated by? Then I'll ask you to cover for me too."

"Ok, since when were you so keen on being a team? Just earlier today you shouted at Malcolm for him saying that we three were a team of sorts!" I said indignantly.

"I don't like him, and now partnership is in the equation to win until further notice. Now if you refuse to cooperate with me, then our team will be finished, history. And I know a little bit about history, mind you." He said with a hint of distaste, but he wasn't exploding in anger as was normal when he wasn't in a cave.

I shook my head at Tim. "I really still don't think you're the same person…"

"And the Utopia I assumed isn't the type to yell." He countered.

"Oh fine. But even though we're working together doesn't mean that we have to become close friends or something. I'll talk about weaknesses if that's what you want to strategize about." I gave in. "I'm allergic to most mammalian Pokémon. If I hang around them too much or get their dandruff or hair in my nose I start sneezing. If I don't get away after a while, I start breaking out. It's not fun, so I'm hoping Gregor's Claritin will help."

Tim gave me a weird look. "I wasn't expecting that… but at least none of my Pokémon will affect you and this is a bird gym…" the black-haired guy shrugged and began to speak about what his weakness might have been, but I cut him off.

"If you want to build up trust for partnership, then I'd like to ask a few questions about you."

He sat up and gave me a lazy stare. "And what's so important that you need to know?"

Luke closed his eyes in happiness and Tim glared back at him. I could only guess Luke had thought something he didn't like to him. Then again, Luke and Tim seemed to tease each other a lot, if not mainly Luke to Tim. Maybe they were really good friends…

"Ok, what?" my partner said, as if challenging me.

"First off, how can you be the second oldest of the top ten and have the least amount of badges?"

He sighed heavily. "Ok, but if I answer your questions, you'll work with me, right?"

"Seamlessly." I crossed my arms as if daring him to go on.

"Fine, I already told you about Luke. Well, after that whole Cofagrigus incident, I wasn't all that keen on training Pokémon. I simply spent the next year of my trainer-ship working with Luke's ghost and helping him to battle. I spent most of my day in Twist Mountain. Sure I found some great fossils and gems in there, but I wasn't out training Pokémon like my father wanted. I had all of my four Pokémon during that time, catching Cryogonal in the winter. I had gotten my two other badges by using my father's Pokémon before Luke died on our way to revive my Archen. I haven't won a gym battle since Archen became my Pokémon and Luke died.

"So I spent about three or four years excavating caves instead of doing the norm and traveling around to train my team. Make sense?" he seemed annoyed to tell me about it and yet almost relieved, as if it helped to talk about it.

"And your dad talked to Jamie to get you here because you weren't being the way your dad wanted?" I observed. Things seemed to make more sense now. Everything he said and did, how he reacted to things were a little more understandable. He didn't like the idea of friends because either he thought they would take the place of Luke or they would end up like Luke. He didn't please his father and felt like he needed to prove himself, kind of like Malcolm and the stress of being great. I closed my eyes and smiled lightly. "I think I understand now…"

I heard Tim sigh and ask, "Why are you so interested in my life? Why do you keep asking me questions?"

I shrugged and kept my eyes closed. "You seemed to me that you **wanted** someone to ask. You were vague about yourself and your ghost friend. **You **wanted someone to care." Once again my people skills amazed me. Maybe I did have a small chance at being a gym leader myself. I needed much more improvement like what Skyla had shown earlier at supper, but I wasn't hopelessly clueless.

There was a pause and I felt the electricity in the rocks behind my back. I could almost feel what Tim was talking about earlier about feeling peaceful in a cave.

I opened my eyes and looked over at Tim, who was still in his same spot, closing his eyes as well. "Hey, maybe our Pokémon should meet each other. If we have a battle or something they have to get along. And maybe we could even try to figure out a few plans of attack. Is that helpful enough for you?"

"Yeah." He grunted as he stood to his feet. "Here will be a good place to practice against wild Pokémon." He paused and looked at me seriously. "No more Larvesta torching my shirt, got it?"

"And no attack-Archen. Deal!" I replied. I held out my Pokéballs, but held back. "Hey, shouldn't we decide on a name for our team?"

He nodded and put a Pokéball to his chin. "Ok, so what could be a word that describes both of us… maybe our Pokémon?"

"Team Luke?" I asked and winked to the floating Yamask. He blushed back in the light of the lantern and hid behind his golden mask a bit.

"No, that only applies to me and my friend."

"Team Ruins; as in the desert ruins?"

"Yeah, that's great." Tim rolled his eyes at me. "That sounds like we're a total wreck."

"Ok then, **you** think of something." I raised my eyebrows at him.

"_Team Relic?"_ Luke added timidly.

"Again, it only applies to me." Tim shot that down as well.

I shook my head and defended Luke's idea. "No I think it could work. It's mainly about you and your archeology stuff, but Sundazzle was probably recovered by Eugene in the Relic Castle by Eugene, right? Sundazzle connects me to the Relic Castle. I kind of like the sound of it."

Tim sighed and said, "It sounds like a Mystery Dungeon team name to me."

"Fine, then Team Emo." I smirked.

"Definitely not that! I would go with something about Kyurem before Team Emo."

"Oh you did not! Kyurem is not to be messed around with!"

"Or maybe we can play off that we have the least amount of badges between us than the other teams."

I nodded. "Ok, we're getting somewhere now. Maybe Team FiveBadge? No, that's lame…" I started thinking about which badges we had between us. I had an Insect, a Bolt, and a Quake badge and Tim had a Jet and a Quake badge. "We both beat Clay and have quake badges…" I mused. "And you spend lots of time in caves… we've got to find a connection somehow…"

"Two Quakes or Five Caves? Does that sound anything like a team name?"

I sighed. Finding a name that could fit the both of us seemed impossible. We were nothing like each other! We had nothing in common other than surprising each other, getting on each other's nerves, and having a quake badge and having few badges. Sure, we had black hair, but I was beginning to think that wasn't even Tim's real hair color. With skin as pale as his he could even be a natural blonde…

"DragonVow."

"What?" I looked at Tim with apprehension. There he was dragging dragons into things again. "What's that got to do with us?"

"They are both things we need to accomplish or get over. You need to get over your fear of dragons and I need to fulfill my vow." Timothy Feldman met my eyes in the gloom and asked, "Does it work?"

I frowned at him. "I don't need to get over my fear of dragons…. I've had this fear since I can remember. I just need to stay away from them… And what's your vow thing about?"

Tim glared back at me. "My vow is my business. And how do you figure on becoming a gym trainer or any trainer at that if you fear one certain kind of Pokémon? If someone with a dragon Pokémon were to come to Skyla's gym, how would you fight properly?" He seemed to understand my weakness a little too well for my liking.

How did he even know that much? I only said that I didn't like dragons when he pointed out my necklace. How'd he suspect that my fear was near crippling? And why was he trying to make me overcome it? I wanted to find a weakness of his to make him feel like I did.

"DragonVow work for you?" He asked flatly.

"It works I guess…" I agreed. I was about to give up on a name anyways. But it still irked me that he thought he had to make me be cured of my phobia. "DragonVow… Team DragonVow…"


	27. What's on the News?

**Utopia's POV**

After the name business thing was solved, I held out my Pokéballs, all four of them. "Ok, Team DragonVow… now we just have to figure out how our Pokémon will get along." I threw the four red and white spheres in the air and four flashes of red light emerged. I had to cover my eyes from the red light from the normal blue electric light.

My Pokémon team materialized in a row, starting with Len and ending with Pebbles. They all gave their cries of their name in variations and Len leapt in a circle to greet me with a friendly "pal!" Sundazzle caught sight of the lantern and crawled closer to stare at the hypnotizing fire. Pebbles chirped and stayed where she was released. Ole was content to flop where he was as well. In fact, I think the Stunfisk was drinking up a little of the electricity generated in Chargestone, flashing his creeper smile again…

Tim called out his three Pokémon with another flash of red. His Pokémon were just as he said, a huge snowflake thing called Cryogonal, his infamous Archen, and his multi-colored Sigilyth. They all seemed calm and well-trained, waiting for orders rather than doing whatever they felt like. Well, the exception being Luke, who was pretty much a person so he was allowed to hover around on his own.

Tim got right down to business. "Ok, so your Palpitoad is your favorite and/or strongest Pokémon? It's certainly your starter."

I put my hands on my hips. "Len is a male Palpitoad."

The teen rolled his eyes. "You named all of your Pokémon?" he said with a sigh.

"Yeah, Len the Palpitoad, Sundazzle the Larvesta," I pointed to the fire-bug at the lantern, "Pebbles the Vullaby," I pointed to the nearly invisible black vulture, "and Ole the Stunfisk." I finished the introductions as Ole gave a creepy smile to Tim.

"You caught that Stunfisk in Icirrus?" He stared at the fish-like Pokémon passively, not at all affected by the creepy smile it was sending. "I guess he does complement your team with typing, though you have two ground types…"

"And you have two flying-types." I huffed at him. I always felt defensive about my Pokémon team. I had raised these creatures all by myself and I was proud of them.

"Yes. So what are the common types to worry about for our combined Pokémon?" he paused and looked over the Pokémon in turn. "Luke's weaknesses are ghost and dark… he's got ghost covered and your Larvesta… does the thing have any bug attacks?"

I nodded and watched the daughter of the sun carefully. She'd better not destroy the lantern! "Yeah, I think bug bite or something."

"Then dark-type is covered." He continued to muse over the Pokémon. "Archen is weak against water, electric, ice, rock, and steel. Cryogonal is weak against fire, fighting, rock, and steel, and Sigiliyth-"

"_Siggy."_ Luke corrected him.

"Right, Siggy…" Tim said with as about as much enthusiasm as a person who was told to take out the Trubbish, "is weak against electric, ice, rock, ghost and dark."

"You have problems with facing a rock-type opponent, don't you?" I observed with a smirk. His team wasn't at all balanced like mine was. I continued to try to be helpful to the previously-suspected jerk, "My ground types can take care of electric Pokémon, Ole's got electricity to defeat water Pokémon with, Sundazzle has flame burst (as you know from experience) and can torch ice and steel types." I joined in on his musings. "Vullaby and Archen have fighting covered, and Len's got the rock types. Does that cover everyone?"

"And your weaknesses?" Tim gave me that weird look again. I couldn't place what he was saying with that look, it was almost like a father correcting me and reminding me to not jump into things too quickly.

I sighed and confessed, "I don't have all the weaknesses memorized…"

"You'd better if you want to raise your Pokémon team to be the best they can be." He looked over my Pokémon and pointed to Len. "Your Palpitoad is only weak against grass. Stunfisk is weak against water, grass, ice, and ground. Vullaby is weak against electric, rock, and ice. And a Larvesta would be weak against… rock, water, and flying." He nodded. "I think that's right."

"Vullaby can cover for Len's weakness—I mean Pebbles—**Pebbles** can cover for Len." I continued to act like I had done that on purpose. Thanks to listening to Tim I called my Pokémon by its species name. "Ole can take care of his water weakness with his thunderbolt, Sundazzle can toast ice and ground is covered by Len. I think my team covers for itself." I said proudly.

"Ok then, so it looks like our types cover each other pretty well." Tim admitted. "But that's as a team. In a double battle we can only have two Pokémon out. Do you want to try out teams against cave Pokémon?"

_Now he's asking all politely. What happened to his orders?_ I was personally tired of strategizing and thinking. I wanted to relax. "When can we get out of this cave and into the nice Pokémon center?" I realized something and sighed. "Oh Landorus… I get a nice new sleeping bag and then I get a nice bed in the Pokémon Center. I can use it later then…"

"You're tired?" Tim gave me a smirking look. "It's barely evening."

"It's been a pretty full day if you ask me. A long Thursday and a long October. I want to relax after everything that's happened. The group of competitors was halved, Jamie's gone along with Bob, and now we're partners of Team DragonVow. I've even felt like I've changed a little and… you know. It **is **my birthday…" After all, I might need to watch a little news if the room had a TV. Jamie did tell me when she was reading my teacup that I should watch the news.

Tim wasn't pleased. He crossed his arms and glared at me. "We should at least get an idea of how our Pokémon will work together."

Luke hovered up to our eye level after his time mingling with the other Pokémon. _"I've been chatting with Utopia's Pokémon and they seem ok to work with. Though that Ole is kind of lax and Sundazzle is a piece of work…"_ the ghost smiled and said, _"Pebbles and Len are ready to cooperate in a fight with us, and Siggy is getting along well with them. Archen even. Cryogonal is still itself…"_ he looked at me with his huge red eyes and thought to me, _"it's really cool to meet your Pokémon in a non-battle setting. They really respect you and say good things about you."_

"Um, thanks." I blushed in the gloom and looked at my Pokémon team. _They said nice things about me? _It was kind of touching to hear that.

Tim still wasn't pleased, which was more of his older self. "If you want to rest now, then we should train in the morning tomorrow."

"Ok, that'll be fine with me." I replied before I even thought about the commitment. I wasn't a super morning-bird and I didn't know if Tim was either. And what if we got the text to meet our Gym Trainer early in the morning? _Oh well, less time with Tim and his over-thinking, right?_ I turned to my team of Pokémon and said, "Ok, Team Utopia, once I get my stuff to the Pokémon Center, I'll treat you all to the new food. Ok?"

"Pal!" Len jumped up and down, showing his usual enthusiasm for everything. "Vull…" Pebbles chirped, showing her approval, but in her dark-type way. Sundazzle was still staring at the lantern and wasn't going to reply even if she was listening. Again, she wasn't a great talker Pokémon. And the last Pokémon, Ole, sent me a creeper smile and said slowly, "Stu-u-u-u-u-u-un."

"Ok, you are the first to be returned you creeper…" I mumbled and returned my fish-looking Pokémon. _Why'd I even keep you, creeperfish?_ That would have been a nicer and more fitting name for him anyways. After that, I returned all of my Pokémon except for Len. What could I say? I loved that sound-toad.

I turned back to Tim and his group of Pokémon. I still felt weird to call him a teammate since he was against friends and teammates. But he wanted to win and he modified himself to fit into winning. "Ok, see you then…" I paused and asked, "Do you still want to go by 'Tim' or 'Timothy'?"

"I don't really care." He replied. His tone wasn't as angry as before, but he wasn't entirely pleased either.

"Ok, see you later then…" I hesitated to wave at him. I still didn't like him all that much so much as to understanding him. I understood him now as a person due to his stories and background. He was my partner in the competition, but not really friendly. I gave up my mental argument and gave him a small wave. It wouldn't hurt to wave at someone, would it?

I didn't bump into any Pokémon on the way out of the cave, which was nice. Len kept up pace with me all the way, jumping every now and then and sending his head-bumps vibrating with sound. I breathed a sigh of relief as soon as I got back into the night air. I liked the refreshing fresh air of the outside much more than the stillness of the cave.

"Well, pal, let's get to a nice Pokémon Center so that we can relax a little. This has been a great birthday…"

"Palpi?" Len asked.

I really had no idea what he might be asking, so I shrugged. I led the short way to the large red building. Then I face-palmed and changed direction to head to the hanger. "I need my stuff first…" I mumbled.

…

I spent the next half-hour hauling my stuff from the hanger to the Center. And in doing so, I realized that I was the last one to move my stuff (Tim had taken his supplies with him in the cave). And it took a total of two trips to get all of my normal junk in addition to my birthday presents (no thanks to Tim's heavy root fossil…). But once it was all done I laid down in the bottom bunk of the two bunk-bed bedroom.

A Pokémon center room can have up to four beds in the cheaper rooms, as in mine. And by cheaper I mean free. You can get a room that's bigger and that has a single bed in it, but they charge you for it. Anyways, on my way to and from the Pokémon Center I had talked with a few other contestants and had learned that all of them paired up according to team. Since I was a girl I got a room all to myself. I was very grateful for that, because it would be a nightmare to room with Tim. _Just… I don't even want to go there._

I made myself at home in the room with four bunk beds. I could even let my Pokémon sleep outside of their Pokéballs. There was a large bathroom attached to the room and there even was a TV in the corner. I mentally cheered for that nicety. Watching TV was more of a privilege as a trainer who travelled around. If one had the money they could buy an Xtransceiver upgrade for Wi-Fi and mobile TV, but I wasn't that rich. My dad worked on the subways, how rich do you get off of that job?

Anyways, I pulled out my remaining three Pokéballs and called out the Pokémon. I had set out food bowls for them already, so that they might eat while I relax in peace. Len waited for the other Pokémon to appear before digging into his bowl. Ole and Pebbles saw the food and jumped to eat their share. Sundazzle glanced around the room as if hatching up evil ways to torch the place. _I knew her since she was an egg, I could just tell…_ Finally Sundazzle began to eat her food (courtesy of Malcolm) and I left them to sit by the TV.

_Ok, Jamie, I hope you were actually telling the future or something. I'd rather watch cartoons or funny shows, but I guess I'll tune in for the news…_ I thought and clicked the remote. I was given a rude surprise by a super loud channel. "WATCH OUT!" the movie channel screamed at me, while showing a distraught and dust-covered woman calling out to a burley, scarred man with a b.a. Krookodile by his side. The hero turned around and the dramatic music boomed at me.

I muted the TV before I could get a round of angry neighbors telling me to not be so loud. I sat back in the small chair and caught my breath. That "watch out" had caused me to freak big time. I watched the hero with curiosity to find out what he was supposed to be watching out for. A giant and ugly Galvantula appeared in the screen, waving its mandibles about.

"Oh, it's one of **those** movies…" I mumbled.

I flipped the channel to find more interesting things. I turned to a blank channel and turned the volume down from 95 to 20. That would be much more bearable. I continued to search the channels, looking for a news thing to get Jamie's suggestion out of my mind. Once I saw some news I could call it good and forget about it.

I found a news channel and sat back. The news anchor was just introducing a new topic. The blonde lady with perfect-laying wavy hair said with utter seriousness, "Coming up, a Pokémon rescued their trainer from near drowning, the Kwester Trio decided to reunite after their separation to explore the Abyssal Ruins, and lastly, with the state polls starting in January the political parties are promoting their candidates all around Unova." Then it had to cut to commercials about Pokémon care, elderly assistance, and political ads.

I rolled my eyes and decided to listen to what was up with the Kwester Trio. After all, they did save Unova from the kami trio (Thundurus, Tornadus, and Landorus) some years back. I forgot how long ago it was again… And not to mention that Malcolm was a cousin of theirs, so I could show some interest in a new friend's family, right?

Once the news came back on, they started with the near-drowning story. "A trainer nearly lost his life today while swimming in the water route off of Nuvema Town. But then a miracle happened, his faithful Darumaka jumped from its Pokéball and started dragging its trainer to shore. A Darumaka is certainly an unusual Pokémon to do a water rescue, but the trainer replied that his fire-type Pokémon had enough heart for a Samurott."

"Onto other news, the well-known Kwester trio is meeting each other at Undella Town to do a co-op search of the Abyssal Ruins. No one so far has been able to explore the entire ruins or decode the pictographs as of now, but these three siblings think they have the stuff."

The screen switched from the news anchor lady to an interview of one of the famous Kwester trio. The woman at the microphone was Ivy, the middle girl of the three siblings. She had strawberry blonde hair tied into a high ponytail on her head. Ivy began with a smile, "Yes, my brothers and I have been on our own paths lately, but Eugene suggested that we do some ruin exploring. I was up for it. Besides the Hoenn region, we hold the only underwater ruins. And thanks to all the support and the diving equipment, we think we can solve the mystery of who built them and what these ruins mean."

The screen switched again to Hess, the youngest sibling. He was a stouter person with reddish-brown hair cut short and haphazard. Hess nodded and said, "I decided to take a break from the battle subways for a chance to explore these ruins. I may not look it, but I'm really interested to know what these pictographs mean."

The final switch was to Eugene, the most familiar of the Kwester trio simply because he was a renowned Pokémon breeder and author. His red hair was tied in a small ponytail and his eyes were covered by sunglasses. "I'm all for exploring every nook and cranny of my home region. There so much of Unova that you miss when you're going around and winning badges and fighting Pokémon. Undella Bay and Abyssal Ruins are the goals right now, and then up next I'm thinking of the Giant Chasm, despite the Laconosa residents' pleas. I just need to explore."

I gulped and gripped the arm of the chair in shock. The news anchor went on to talk about other things happening in Unova, but I couldn't get my mind off the Kwester trio… Exploring the Giant Chasm was stupid if not suicidal! Disaster was said to befall anyone that approached the Giant Chasm! That's where Kyurem was said to sleep! And what if Eugene woke it up? _Maybe this is what Jamie is talking about for watching the news._

Suddenly a gust of wind rattled my window, making me jump once more. Maybe after an emotional day I was just jumpy and worn-out. I hugged my arms close and shuddered. Walking closer to the window, I peered out to see what was up with the weather. It had been fine besides a few clouds in the sky, but now it was beginning to get windy. A few rain drops began to splat against the window.

_Is Tim going to get caught in this storm?_ I scoffed at myself for feeling sympathy_. It would serve him right. He was the one with the crazy idea of training in a cave. _

I turned to my Pokémon and saw they were all watching me carefully. Even Sundazzle, who had made a string-shot nest in the top bunk of the opposite bunk I had chosen to occupy, was giving me a blue-eyed stare. I smiled and waved my hand. "I'm fine you guys… I'm just jumpy and such."

"Pal?" Len widened his gaze to look cute and innocent. "Palpi toad-toad pal?"

"I don't know what you're saying, but I'm fine…" I smiled weakly at my Palpitoad. I noticed the TV was still on and I turned it off. I didn't like TVs on to be background noise; I was easily distracted by noise… I kneeled down to look at my three Pokémon still on the ground. "Ok, I'm ready to turn in for the day. Can I trust you Pokémon to not completely wreck," I glanced up at my fire-bug and said pointedly, "or burn down the room?"

"Vulla."

"Stu-u-u-u-unfi-i-i-i-isk."

"Pal palpi!"

I waited for Sundazzle to confirm as well. I stared at the bug before she muttered what I **hoped** to be a "ok, master, I will not be a bad bug."

"That's more like it." I nodded to the Pokémon. "Just don't stay up all night or else its back to the Pokéball you go."


	28. Team Shining Luxray

**A/N: Ok, new perspective time. "Hold onto your butts." -Quote from the film Jurassic Park.**

**Malcolm's POV**

"Ok, first off, we need a team name. I'm personally not sure what a good name would be since I don't know anything about you. Ok, rearrange things; we get to meet each other, talk things over, and then we can come up with a name. Cool with you?" I watched my partner for an answer.

My partner wasn't my first choice. Personally I would've loved to be partnered with Utopia, but Tim had to call her. I don't get that emo, seriously. And Skyla said she was going to partner them up anyways. But hey, it wasn't like I wasn't allowed to talk with her anymore.

And this guy I was paired with was a person (of course I had met before) that didn't talk much. Archie Graham. He was a burly sailor-looking guy with sun-weathered skin. He even was 'beast' in my opinion. He could certainly look like he could press more than me in a weight room. His small dark eyes weren't all that pleasant and he needed to be coaxed into talking. I didn't understand how someone wouldn't want to talk; it would be so boring and quiet.

He continued to stare at me with that dark-eyed look like I was speaking a different language.

"You speak Unovian, right?"

"Yes." He said curtly.

"Ok, then I'll start out with myself and feel free to jump in." I said and sat down on my bed in our shared room. I liked the bottom bunk on the north side of the room while he claimed the bottom of the other bunk bed. "I'm a cousin of the Kwester trio, so my Pokémon journey has been pretty good. I started out with my Braviary, and then caught my Cottonee and Timburr in Pinwheel Forest, and then I caught a Darumaka on the desert route. I actually needed a little help for Braviary, a Rufflet at the time, to beat Burgh's bug Pokémon, so little Darumaka helped me win the insect badge."

I could go one about my Pokémon and journey for hours. I wasn't going to get worn out. I could only hope that Archie would talk to me back. No, I had to ask him questions! "So enough about me, you said you have four Unovian badges and eight Sinnoh Badges? How'd that work out?" I was really impressed that he could get that many badges, and even from a different region.

Archie shrugged. "My family went to Sinnoh for a mission trip. I was born there. Over there they allow ten-year-olds start on their Pokémon journey. I went and won with my team for four years. Then my family went back here and I tried starting over with Unovian Pokémon. I still have my old team, but I wasn't sure if they allowed non-Unovian Pokémon in this competition."

"Wow, you've got a really interesting story right there! You lived in Sinnoh? But wasn't there a huge controversy about the President getting killed or something not that long ago?" I wasn't the biggest news-junkie, but I knew generalizations about world events.

He nodded. "It was bad. Thank Arceus that we went back to Unova before that got serious."

"Hey, what's an Arceus?" I asked pleasantly. At least he was talking. And since he was from a different region, he could talk about his travels. I kind of had that 'exploring bug' cousin Eugene had and world travel sounded amazing. I got postcards from my older brother and I couldn't bear to think of spending my entire life just in Unova.

He raised his thick eyebrows. "You don't know Arceus, the Alpha Pokémon? The Pokémon that created the Sinnoh region, if not the entire Pokémon world?"

"I thought Reshiram and Zekrom created the Unova region… and then destroyed it…" Actually, I had heard that story a few times and the ending seemed so weird. _If our region was destroyed, then where were we living? What Pokémon made Unova and left it as is?_ But hey, those were legends. "Never mind, that story never made any sense anyways. Sure, an Alpha Pokémon that created the Pokémon world. Got it." I grinned and continued to ask the sailor-looking Archie, "So how is Sinnoh different from Unova?"

Archie shrugged. "Snowpoint is the coldest place in the Pokémon world I think. The people there speak a different language, so I know both their language and this language. I've spent enough time here that I lost my heavy accent." He looked at me and seemed lost for anything else to say.

"Cool, bilingual! That's very handy. I see lots of foreigners around this region after that whole scandal. I wished I could communicate with them, but they don't understand me… Hey! Do they have Pokémon musicals over there? I entered one before. It's not my kind of thing, but if I have a lady with me, it makes all the difference if you know what I mean." I snickered.

Archie seemed amused at me. "I understand perfectly. And no, they don't have Pokémon musicals over there. Sinnoh people have Pokémon contests and poffins and props and three-act performances. It's almost like a science there. You have to know which moves work in combination with others and if the Pokémon likes certain flavored poffins… it's a hassle!"

"Bummer, man!" I sympathized.

"Yeah, I don't do it because it's too complicated and you don't get anything nice when you win. A picture, a little attention, and a prop, then it's all over. I like musicals better because of their simplicity, but I agree with the chic thing."

"Yeah, you like a girl then? Is she from Sinnoh or Unova?" I leaned forward with a mischievous smile. Then again it was nice to do some guy-talk. It would be hard to guy-talk with Utopia.

Archie smiled back. "I'm eighteen years old; I certainly do like a girl by now!" He fumbled in his pack and pulled out his wallet. "Here she is." He pointed the first picture in his wallet.

I took the wallet and smiled at the picture. It had Archie with his arm around a nice-looking lady by the Undella beach. "A blonde. Nice!" I handed back the wallet. "So you like to tell me about this fine female?"

"Well, maybe later." Archie seemed almost flustered now. He seemed to be more open after our little chat thus far. "I think you're a nice guy, Malcolm. Thanks for talking. Shouldn't we pick a name for our team and send it to Skyla?"

_So he was the get-down-to-business type of person._ I would expect as much from a seasoned fighter that had all of Sinnoh's badges. "Ok then, how about something that we both like…"

"Ladies." Archie smirked. "But that's not masculine enough."

"Yeah, we're men!" I emphasized with a bicep flex. I smirked and returned to thinking. "Maybe it could be a Pokémon that we like, or maybe a food we like…" I snapped my fingers at my own brilliance. "Hey, we have nineteen badges between us, your twelve and my seven. Let's see, the Pokémon that's number nineteen in the 'dex is…" I paused and tried to remember the order of Pokémon again. I had them memorized at one time! "Oh right, Pansear!" I nodded confidently.

"Pansear isn't all that threatening…" Archie said, and then snapped his fingers like I did. "Hey, in Sinnoh number 19 is Luxray! That's a beast Pokémon."

"What does it look like?"

"A lion with a huge black mane and claws. It's an electric cat." He reached in his pack again and brought out an oddly shaped Pokédex. He flipped it open and pulled up a picture of a Liepard-like Pokémon with a black mane, black and blue fur, and sharp claws with a yellow star-like thing on its tail.

"Looks great, man." I stood up. "So, Team Luxray, or something added to that? Team Flaming Luxray?"

"Shining Luxray, because we are going to win this challenge."

"Nice." I high-fived my partner. "I'll send the text right away." I sat back down and pulled out the Xtransceiver to send Cliff the update. While texting I asked, "So about your girl…?"

"Well, her name is Gabriella and I met her in Unova…" Archie left off as if embarrassed to share it with me. The tough-sailor shrugged and said, "Well, she's great and all… and… is Utopia your girl?"

I smiled back and shook my head. "I certainly like her but she isn't looking for a relationship right now. I'll still be by her side, being her friend until she changes her mind. She's a strange person; she stands out compared to other girls. I like her, she's so timid and yet she has some spunk." He wouldn't believe that she yelled at me and Tim just today if I told him. She frankly didn't look like the type to have any sort of anger.

"And now she's partners with that dark guy…" Archie observed.

"Yeah, Tim and I don't see eye to eye. I try to be nice and all he does is get angry at me. There's something about that guy that's shifty…" I replied. It was normal for me to be open with people. It was just my style. "Hey, maybe we should check on the rest of the competitors to see how they are doing. We are all on the same floor and hall after all. Even though I don't like Tim, I'll give him credit for his fighting. But we all are much closer to getting to the top spot now. We should celebrate, or at least congratulate everyone." I stood after that, my text already sent.

Archie shrugged. "I guess so. It would actually be an ok thing to check on other teams and think our competition. I haven't worked with teams all that much, but I can certainly try to help." He was a strong fighter with a high probability of knowing his fighting strategy to a 't'. He did have experience on his side and probably the strongest known partner in the group other than that one crazy harlequin person.

"You'll be a great help. I feel that I can already trust you." I gave him a thumbs-up. "Now let's see if we can call up a congratulatory meeting or something. We're all in this together!"

Archie nodded with me and we, Team Shining Luxray, went out of the room to meet the other teams. What I first saw was not what I expected. Somehow I had failed to hear any of the commotion that I walked out into from the room.

There they were, the youngest of the group Dan (a young black jogger) was yelling at the prim and almost military Pavel. Ouri, Utopia's friend, and his teammate Guy Fellow and Albert the harlequin and his teammate Gregor were staring at the verbal (so far) fight. I glanced to my left and saw that even Tim was there, leaning coolly against his door and whispering to his talking ghost. Surprisingly Utopia wasn't storming in and trying to smooth things out.

I looked at the emo and asked, "What' going on here? Where's Utopia?"

Archie joined the four others in staring at the yelling teammates to try to gather what was going on.

I waited for the emo to give an answer. He gave me a look that said he would like to do better things than talk to me, which really irked me. "The kid and pilot are having an argument, what does it look like?" he said in a sarcastic tone.

"And why isn't Utopia trying to smooth things out?" I huffed.

He rolled his dark eyes at me and said, "She's turning in for the night. You can go in and check on her if you want."

I crossed my arms at Tim and said as nicely as I could, "I wouldn't want to check on her if she's going to be sleeping. What, you think I'm a perv?"

"Do you **want** me to answer my question?" Tim leered back.

"Look, don't make me start a second fight here." I warned him.

The strange speaking ghost hovered between Tim's and my face and thought, _"Please try to get along you two! It's been a long day already."_ The ghost looked at me and pleaded, _"Please don't be offended by my friend, he's just in an irritable mood."_ Then he turned around and looked at his friend, though I couldn't hear what he was thinking.

Tim wasn't amused by his ghost friend's pleas. He glared at Luke the Yamask and stuck up his nose. "Fine then, Mr. Peace-maker. Go and stop those two."

"_What?"_ Luke started to wave his arms around in a panicked style. _"I don't even understand what's going on. I don't know them or how to calm them."_

I winked at the Yamask and said, "Don't worry; I'll try to make peace here. After all, I am a people-person. I've got skills."

The ghost seemed a little pleased while Tim gave me another one of his glares. I could have sworn that he muttered "skills my butt" but I wasn't sure. I tried to ignore his blunt rejection and thought to focus on the two yelling and maybe soon brawling teammates. I could do this; I just needed to figure out how the best way would be to go about solving it.

I wasn't the subtle sort of person. I walked up to the two and put my arms around both of their shoulders and said, "Hey, what's this commotion about?"

The younger, Dan Aviv, threw my arm off his shoulder in an instant. The young African-Unovian held up a clenched fist at me and yelled, "Get your grubby paws off me, man!"

Pavel still stood alert and straight as if awaiting a command from an invisible commanding officer. He hardly gave me a second look even though we were only a year apart in age.

I held up my hands in an innocent gesture and said as firmly as I could to the youngest of the Top Ten, "Chill, I'm just trying to stop a brawl here. You'll hear it from me or the workers of this Pokémon Center either way. So, can I help?" _Come on, friendliness, work for me!_

The young jogger pointed to the pilot and shouted, "That guy won't cooperate at all with me. He treats me like a five-year-old, man!"

"And what's your problem?" I looked at the seemingly statue of Pavel.

The pilot slowly brought his eyes to look at me while his body stayed completely still. He was taller than me by a little. "I can't work with an immature brat like him if I plan to win this. All of my training for this gym will be ruined by a noob."

"I'm a trainer and don't you forget it!" Dan snapped back. "My Zebstrika could KO all of your Pokémon with one thunder. Just try me cracke-"

"Hey, calm down there, Dan." I shot in. "No need to get racial, I'm thinking Pavel is just a serious trainer." I looked at Pavel and tried to think of a way of getting his mind to change about Dan. _Well, I could come up with a great team name for them… that was all my brain had._ "Look, you two are different but I bet you two can get along. It's easy, just talk a little and try to be friendly."

"Not when someone treats me like a no-good piece of trash, man!" Dan huffed. "He won't listen and I'm telling him off. I would punch him but I don't want to get bloody." That was a pass-all excuse to not start a fight with a more able opponent.

Pavel continued to stare at the younger boy with distaste. "There goes my second attempt on getting the position. All thanks to him…"

Dan was about to shoot back something at the pilot, but I tried to figure out a way to keep them from starting a fight. There had to be something… "Hey, Junior Senior," I used what I thought to be a great team name for the two, "You two can work it out. Dan's a great kid I bet. Maybe a battle will calm things down a bit?"

"Are you kidding? Unless there's an indoor stadium there won't be a Pokémon match. The weather outside is getting gruesome." Tim put in oh-so helpfully.

"Great, thanks bud…" I grumbled at him. Then it hit me, Dan and Pavel were kind of like Tim and I (but only a little, mind you). Utopia had told us to try to back off each other and not explode on each other to cooperate. Maybe that could work! _Thanks Utopia, if this works I'll be sure to tell you all about it!_

"Listen up and maybe I can help in this whole thing, ok?" I addressed both of the fighting trainers. "First off, Dan, you should try to hold your temper and not get so offended. If you are spitting sparks it's going to cause a fire. You needn't jump to conclusions and get all huffy so quickly.

"And Pavel, you should lay off him and have some faith in him. You can't really judge people by their age to see if they will be good fighters or partners. Take my partner Archie." I pointed to the sailor and continued, "Pavel, you might have eight Unovian badges for an eighteen year-old, but my partner (of Team Shining Luxray) is eighteen and only has four Unovian badges. However, I think he's the most experienced fighter in this group since he completed the Sinnoh league. That's right, Archie has twelve badges!" I smiled at Archie and looked back at the pilot. "So you see that age can't be an indication of power. Tim's the second oldest and he's got only two badges. Dan can prove that he's as good as any other person here." I stepped back a little to watch their reaction.

Dan and Pavel seemed to consider my words, which were kind of a slight paraphrasing of Utopia's lecture. At least they weren't turning on me, that was a good sign.

Tim noticed the borrowed inspiration from Utopia and continued to give me his discontent glare. There was no pleasing that one! He gave me a dark look and whispered, "Be sure to cite your sources…"

"Oh hush." I whispered back. It would be in bad taste for me to try to solve a conflict only to turn around and start one with Tim.

"Fine, I'll think about it." Pavel said in his strange, military-solemn voice.

"Me too. I still don't like him, but maybe we could work as a team… if he starts treating me nicer…" Dan turned to me and asked, "What'd you call us again?"

I smiled to cover up my previous anger with the emo. "I thought Junior Senior would be a cool team name for you, you don't need to use it if you don't want to."

"Junior Senior. I kinda like it." the young jogger gave me a small grin. "Aight, you cool, man."

"Right back at ya, little man." I gave him a high-five. _Great, my people skills haven't failed me yet!_

**A/N: and there's the end of my Christmas break rush of chapters. Phew… I think I need a little breather now…**


	29. Morning Training

**A/N: I really like it when characters introduce themselves for me. I just realized that Dan debuted with his first line in chapter 7 (the guy that tells Tim to cool it). ^_^**

**Anyways, I want to give credit to Phoenix Vanguard in his story Whim of a Madman for the idea that a screech attack can be used to deafen an enemy Pokémon.**

**Utopia's POV**

The morning of the 21st, a Friday, I nearly had a panic attack. Skyla had told us to text our team name to her last night and I had** totally forgotten** about it until that very moment! It was six in the morning but I didn't care. I had to make sure that my team was still accounted for. I sprang out of bed and began to text in a frenzy. _Landorus, why didn't I remember that until now of all times?_

I sent the text and breathed a slight sigh of relief. I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep thanks to that adrenaline rush. I looked around the dim room and saw that most of my Pokémon were still sleeping after my hasty leap from the bunk bed. _Hey, at least I wasn't on the top bunk, right? _

I saw that Sundazzle was up and giving me a blue-eyed glare from the top bunk. I smiled slightly and nervously at the little trouble-making Pokémon. But other than her, Pebbles, Ole, and Len were all sleeping on the bunk beds, Len and Ole on the bottom bunk of the one I wasn't taking, and Pebbles on the top of my bunk. We all fit in the room well.

Heaving a sigh, I wandered through the gloom to fumble in my pack for clean clothes. It was a struggle, but I found some. _I really needed to do my laundry soon. Thank Landorus for free soap and drying sheets in Pokémon centers._ Sure, you still had to pay one hundred Poké (which isn't all that much. A single Pokéball is two hundred for comparison) for the machines to run.

I gave up the thought of washing my clothes until I had cleared up the challenge for today paired with Tim. I could only hope that things would go well. I still held a grudge against him for his Archen attack (wow, was it really only a few days ago?). He was still a course person to work with, even though he seemed to be a little more willing to work as a team. I shrugged and took a long and hot shower to wake me up properly. It felt really nice and refreshing, not to mention that it was convenient to have a bathroom close by, unlike the few days spent in the hanger.

My clothes for the day were a graphic tee (with a soccer team logo that my dad liked) covered by a hoodie and another jacket in case of bad weather, coupled with good ol' jeans and sneakers. I thought to wear a necklace as well, so I picked out the one I thought was Ouri's gift to wear. After I was dressed and out of the bathroom, I noticed that Len was staring with wide eyes at my Xtransceiver.

I patted my Pokémon on the bumpy head and picked up the device. One new message was on it, from Cliff. [Yes, we already had it. Tim sent it last night.]

_Ooh, Tim remembered. Good job on his part._ I gave Len another grin and said, "It's ok, boy. You remember the Xtransceiver, right?"

"Palpi pal." Len quipped and jumped back to where he was sleeping.

"Hey, I might need to get training, so don't you go back to sleep." I gave my sleepy starter Pokémon a don't-get-smart-with-me look. I picked up the Xtransceiver and debated on whether I should send my teammate Tim a text. I smirked at the over-usage of 't's in my last thought. _Heh heh, 'teammate Tim a text'… _Then again, did I want to train my Pokémon with him?

I had been doing my Pokémon journey for the most part as a solo trainer. My only experience with double battles was when I sent out two of my own Pokémon. What was involved with a fellow trainer in the battle? _Maybe I really do need to understand how two trainers fight as a team…_ But then again who said that we had to fight? What if it was just the standard 'trust-fall' and other teamwork building activities? _No, it couldn't be after Skyla gave us that speech about that we would be allowed when we were at our physical limit or something like that._

"Palpi Palpitoad…" Len grumbled and flopped back on the bed. Six was still too early for my normally cheerful sound-toad.

The Xtransceiver buzzed three times to show that I had another text. I pulled it up and saw that my teammate was once again one step ahead of me. Wait, how'd he get my number? "Tim you… how'd you get that number you creeper?" I mumbled at the device. The text read, [Are you ready to start training now? The weather hasn't been all that great since last night, but Chargestone is close enough to the center.] _Him and caves…_ there was no doubt in my mind that he was an archeologist person now.

I sighed and decided to return my team to their Pokéballs and head out. After all, Tim's room was right next to mine. Why bother sending a reply? After four beams of red light were sucked into the red and white spheres and a few healing items slipped inside my pockets, I shouldered my coat and opened my door.

The hallway lights were bright and I squinted for a second to adjust. I looked to my right and saw that Tim was leaning against the door of his room, waiting for me. It was a little creepy at first, but I held back from flinching. I tried to act more awake than I was to not give him anything to poke fun at me. "'Morning…" I said and straightened my back.

He nodded back to me. He was wearing a black coat with the hood up, giving him a creepier than normal look about him. He had his large pack on his back as well. "The gym trainers will give us their locations at eight. We've got about an hour and a half to get our teams coordinated." He got off the wall and started walking to the exit without any further words.

I was fine with that. After a little ways of walking, I said quietly, "Good job for texting Skyla about the team name. I totally forgot about it until this morning."

Tim sighed in reply. He whispered back hostilely, "Why do I get the feeling that I'm going to have to be the leader of this group? Oh yeah, it's because** I** plan ahead."

I wanted to defend myself, but I held back. Actually, it was more than less true. I wasn't much of a planner compared to Tim. My strategy of winning the competition was to let things happen and figure out things as they came. Still I didn't like the attitude that he used to say it.

Luke the friendly ghost materialized by my head with a grin to cheer me up. _"Morning Utopia, how'd you sleep? Did you have any dreams?"_

I thought it was kind of odd to get that kind of familiar greeting from him, but I didn't want to refuse him. "Hi, Luke. I slept pretty well. I didn't realize how tired I was until I got into bed. Man, it felt so much better to sleep in the Pokémon center than in the hanger!" I stretched and concluded, "And I didn't have any dreams, at least that I remember."

"_Ok, I like to ask because… well, ghost Pokémon are different from normal Pokémon. We don't sleep like the others. I haven't had a dream since I can remember being a Pokémon. I always like to hear about dreams."_ The Yamask thought back to me.

"That's interesting…" I nodded back to the friendly little ghost. I then blurted out, "I once had a dream that I had to balance on a rubber ball in a competition against a Darumaka, if you wanted to know." I answered with a slight giggle. I didn't know why I had just spit out that weird little dream, but there was no taking it back now.

Luke closed his eyes in happiness. _"Really? That's pretty funny."_

Tim gave me a look that could have meant 'are you serious?' or 'what is wrong with you?'. He glared over his shoulder and shook his head.

"What's that look for?" I huffed.

"You don't have to make up things just to amuse my friend." He muttered back.

I crossed my arms and protested, "I wasn't making it up. I was just being friendly and honest. Why do you seem so touchy about your friend?"

"Because he died." Tim replied in a hushed voice as we started walking down the stairs to the lobby.

I kept quiet as we headed out_. I could wait on food anyways,_ I thought as I gave a glance to the downstairs area where food would be waiting in the buffet lines as usual. But staying quiet in the lobby gave me a chance to think more about Luke and Tim.

They were certainly strong friends, they knew each other very well, and it almost felt like Luke was welcoming me as another friend and Tim didn't like it. Or maybe I was completely wrong about it. How was I to know what it felt like to have a close friend as a ghost Pokémon on my team?

Tim opened the door and the wind and rain fell across my face, startling me out of my daydreaming and musing. He continued out the door as if the weather was normal. I hugged my coat closer to my body and trudged out after him, the wind was almost sharpened by the looming peak of Chargestone Cave, and the rain fell at an angle, hitting my face even when I ducked and held my hands up to shield.

Thankfully the trip was short and I breathed a sigh of relief when I entered into the still, blue cave. "If the Gym trainers think they can have outside activities today, I'll punch them in the face." I complained. "Did Mistralton always have this crappy of weather?"

"It's worse in Icirrus. All the ice-type Pokémon will be coming out soon." Tim said and let his pack fall to the ground. I thought I heard some Pokémon scurrying away from the sound. _Maybe it was a Joltik…_ Tim gave me a degrading look as he stated, "Well, let's get out our Pokémon and work on tag-teams."

I nodded and called out my Pokémon, who all were still sleeping with the exception of Sundazzle. I face-palmed and tried to rouse them. "Come on, guys, you can't be asleep now. We've got to battle now. Sleep later." Sundazzle eyed Tim with that strange I-want-to-toast-you look.

Len stood to his two feet and tried to wake himself up. Ole was faking as far as I could tell. I didn't dare touch the creeper-fish for fear of getting a creepy smile and a jolt of electricity. Pebbles squawked and refused to be roused. I groaned. _This was my team of Pokémon, and they were performing __so well__ in front of my teammate…_

Tim pulled out his team, who were good little Pokémon and were wide awake, ready for action (though I couldn't really tell with his Cryogonal thing). Archen opened its toothed beak in a slight yawn, showing that is was still a real Pokémon that had a real sleep schedule. The black-haired guy gave me another one of his belittling looks and started to think out loud to think of good pairs. "I was thinking that your Palpitoad would be good with Siggy since Siggy has a 'fly' attack, and your Pokémon could use a move like muddy water to hit two opponents at once."

"Mmhmm…" I agreed while poking my Vullaby to wake her up. She pecked at me and I yanked my finger away quickly enough to not get bitten. I was kind of amused with it and continued to try to rouse her with the poking while Tim continued to strategize.

"Then either Crogonal or Archen would need ground assistance from your Stunfisk…"

"Mmhmm…"

"And that would leave your Vullaby and Larvesta with Luke and the Pokémon that doesn't pair up with Stunfisk."

"Mmhmm… Ouch!" I yelped as Pebbles timed her pecking just right. I held my throbbing finger and glared at the sleepy vulture. "You little diaper-wearing-"

"What'd you say?" Tim gave me a withering glare.

"I was talking to my Pokémon. Sheesh…" I glared back.

"Have you been listening to me at all?"

I nodded back while giving Pebbles a glare. "Yeah, Len with Siggy, Ole with one of your floating Pokémon, and then Luke with Larvesta or something, right?" Come to think of it, Tim had all floating Pokémon except for his fossil bird Pokémon. That was interesting… no wonder he was so weak against a rock-type opponent.

He huffed back at me. "I still wonder why Luke lost to your Palpitoad. You seem to have little authority over your Pokémon."

"But I've got one more badge than you. I should technically have more respect from my Pokémon than you…" It was said that the more badges that one trainer had, the more the Pokémon felt obliged to obey and respect the human. Well, whoever came up with that rule didn't have my team in mind. I had won three badges and my team hadn't given me any more respect than when I first caught them.

Tim responded, "Badges don't have anything to do with it. I've spent years with my Pokémon team, and you've only had one year. Not to mention that you seem more like a Pokémon friend or pet person than a trainer. You need to show that you are the head of the team instead of letting your Larvesta do whatever she likes." He added as a side note, "You can be a friend to Pokémon and a strong leader at the same time. Training is almost like parenting."

"Yeah, I think I see your point. Sundazzle can act like such a spoiled brat sometimes…" I admitted, and then tried to defend my training methods. "But I can be a good trainer. I just need my team to wake up, and then they'll cooperate." Tim was right when he said that training was like parenting. Pokémon could act like little kids sometimes, and it was up to the trainer to provide for them and raise them. That's another reason why Pokémon training was so personal: because Pokémon were like kids and the last thing a parent wants to hear is that their kid is a terrible child, even if we knew it to be true.

But the similarities of Pokémon raising and children raising didn't match up when you consider Pokémon battles.

Tim still wasn't pleased with my team's tiredness. "So are we going to be able to practice?"

Luke floated towards and thought to me, _"Archen can use screech. It'll wake up your Pokémon, but I'd warn you that you might get a headache. In a cave a screech attack is echoed, so it's even more effective. I could ask Archen …"_

I shrugged. "If your friend wants to train so badly, then I'll have to stick with that plan."

The Yamask nodded and hovered back by his friend. Tim got the message and commanded his Archen to screech. Luke quickly thought to me, _"Cover your ears, it'll hurt!"_ before the fossil bird opened its toothed beak and let loose the most terrifying sound I had ever heard.

I clamped my hands over my ears and leaned forward as the screeching rang throughout the cave, ringing in my head. It was thankfully a short attack and I took a second to let my fingers venture out of my ears. Everything seemed so quiet, as if I had just gotten back from a loud concert and regular sound wasn't loud enough for my accustomed ears. I looked at Tim to see if he had a similar affect.

Tim was holding his ears as well, but I think that he had less of a sound barrage that I did since he was behind his Pokémon. My Pokémon were awake after that horrendous sound, though Ole looked disappointed that he didn't get to shock me. Pebbles squawked irritably at Tim's Archen, Len seemed more of a whiner that the screech hurt his sound-toadness… in some way. Sundazzle simply intensified her look of wanting to torch Tim.

I shrugged my shoulders and said, "I guess it worked…"

"You don't need to speak that loud." Tim said in a quiet tone.

Great, now the screech attack was having a bad effect on my hearing, maybe even my Pokémon as well as me. _It's ok, I'll get my hearing back eventually…_ "You weren't hit by that screech." I huffed back. I looked at my much more awake and irritated team of Pokémon. They seemed to have the same reaction that I had to the screech, slight deafness.

Tim was nice enough to wait a little for my ears to start picking up noises again. Once again I still wondered if he was really serious about our truce. He was still Tim, but now he seemed a little nicer.

"_Can you hear me now?"_ "Yamask?" Luke floated up to me and asked.

"Yeah, I think I can hear better now." I nodded to the ghost. I looked at Tim and said, "Ok, so you said that Len and Siggy or Len and Archen would be a good team?"

The dark-haired guy nodded. "Len and Siggy. We've got an hour to train and practice, so let's find some Klinks and other cave Pokémon to fight."


	30. Unwelcome Winds

**A/N: So far two trends have been followed for every ten chapters; Utopia wakes up and is surprised by something (as in meeting Weyler and in her surprise birthday party). However, since she's already awake, I can't keep that tradition to a 'T'. But I do have a surprise… :)**

**Secondly, I still do not own Pokémon. Thank you for reading the story and sticking with me for thirty chapters thus far (and about 90,000 words as well). I am not the best writer out there, but I try to write my best :)**

**Utopia's POV**

I was surprised to note how easily our Pokémon worked together in double battles. Len and Siggy were great partners to each other, while Len was slower, Siggy made up for him with his own speed. Then Siggy would fly up into the cave air and wait for Len to use muddy water before crashing down on the Pokémon who was close to fainting. Even in a cave with electric types Pokémon, they did very well. And when Len learned an attack in the near future (like earthquake or something) Siggy wouldn't be affected by it.

I was also caught off guard with how easy it was to battle with Tim's training style. He went for super effective moves and stuck with it, so I didn't have to worry about our Pokémon getting mixed up with which Pokémon to attack. Sure it was odd at the start of our hour of training to work with someone else, but by the end we were on a role.

Our other teams were Pebbles and Cryogonal, Ole and Archen, and Sundazzle and Luke. In my opinion Len and Siggy were our best synched team, followed by Luke and Sundazzle, and then the other two were at a tie. Along with learning about Tim's fighting style, I was able to learn a little about his Pokémon's personalities as well and their preference of fighting. It sounds complicated, but Pokémon training sometimes becomes instinct and every movement and attack a Pokémon sends off can tell a trainer a little about the Pokémon.

After Luke fired a shadow ball at the latest Tynamo, he panted and thought, _"Ok, can we take a breather? We'll be bushed from this training when the real stuff starts…" _The Tynamo that he defeated slunk off, not wanting to be further wounded.

I nodded, breathless and amazed still by the effect of being in a tag team. "Sure, we've got some time before the text comes, so we should visit the Pokémon center to give you guys a little break."

"You ready?" Tim asked and held out the black and gold Pokéball to Luke.

The ghost nodded and turned into the familiar red energy and entered the Pokéball. I stared a little at the luxury ball. It seemed still strange to me that Luke was inside a Pokéball, he was usually floating around invisible or not and using telepathy. It was almost like he had left and I missed him.

Tim noticed my staring and nodded. "Luke isn't in his Pokéball much unless he needs a rest. I planned to keep him secret in this competition, but I guess I changed my mind."

After training my Pokémon by his side, I felt that strange bond of partnership with Tim. He seemed much more open than only five days ago (when he flipped me off). Now we could work as a team. I nodded and returned my tired Pokémon as well. "It's a good thing you did." If he didn't let Luke out to battle Len, then Luke wouldn't have come over to ask for help for the Pidove. It was kind of weird to think of it in that perspective.

Tim gave me a look that I didn't really understand. Either he was agreeing with me or he was being critical of me, I couldn't tell. He sighed and looked at the cave exit. "If we time it right, then we can have our Pokémon healed and be heading out right as Brady sends us a message."

I agreed and started walking out of the cave. I paused at the exit and remembered that the weather was less than favorable and I had left my coat on the cave floor while training. I turned around to see Tim, with all of his stuff with him, holding up my coat by one finger as if it was putrid. He gave it to me and pushed by me, unwilling to let that small token of niceness come to anything.

I shrugged and pulled on the coat and thought nothing more of it. I stepped out into the blustery morning and shuddered at the force of the wind and rain. I didn't like the idea of doing any challenges outside, especially since the balance boards north of town were mentioned to practice on. With my luck Brady would be the trainer that ended up being in the worst spot in the course.

I stumbled with Tim back into the Pokémon Center. I sighed happily as the air inside wasn't threatening to suffocate me as the outside felt like. The Pokémon Center lobby already had a few people in it: Gregor and the harlequin, and a few other regular traveling trainers. I gave my Pokéballs to the nurse and went up to greet my hero-nerd friend. "'Morning, Gregor, how are you?"

He smiled back and replied, "Fine. I see that you and your partner and you have gotten in a little early morning training, right? How did it go?"

I smiled and glanced to Tim, who was sitting down on one of the couches to wait for his Pokémon. He still wasn't a people person. I looked back at Gregor and replied, "It went great actually. We were training in Chargestone Cave against the Pokémon in there. I think we might be an ok team in a double battle."

"That's great to hear. I guess your resolve about not helping him has softened. That's very good if you plan to work together." _That's right; he was there when I reluctantly decided to help Tim with his Pidove._ The hero-nerd adjusted his glasses and pointed to Albert. "We were more training in strategy and thought problems. If we have to answer a riddle we'll have no problem. Also, Albert has a very good sense of balance if we end up doing something on the balancing platforms."

"Great. I just hope we don't have to fight each other or something like that. You'd be a tough opponent…" I tried to keep on a smile as I accidentally reminded myself that he had a Fraxure and if I had to fight it I might melt into phobic fear.

Gregor smiled. "Thank you, Utopia. You are very encouraging."

I grinned back. That was very nice of him. But I felt lead to help him out a little since Bob and his other friend had already left the competition, not to mention that he was very friendly. We were both kind of the last ones: me being the last girl, and he the last of his trio. "We are still Pidove partners. If we had been in the same group I think that would've been a good name for us." I looked at Albert the harlequin and asked Gregor, "So what is your team name?"

Albert stepped forward and leaned on Gregor's shoulder showing off his superior height. "Hey teammate, why doncha introduce me to the little lady?" He grinned and gave me a mock bow. "Just kidding, I would recognize Utopia anywhere! She is the last girl here, not to mention it's her first full day of being sixteen, amiright?"

I ventured a smile at the jester. "Yeah. So what's your two's team name?"

"Team Specs." The harlequin announced. "I might not look that I need glasses, but that's because I wear contacts. As far as we know, we are the only ones that need glasses to see well. But then again it's hard to tell if a person has contacts."

"And what about your team name?" Gregor seemed a little embarrassed of his teammate, maybe even the name.

"DragonVow." I said sheepishly. Saying it to someone else made me feel self-conscious, as if my secret fear of dragons was being proclaimed for all to hear.

However, the hero-nerd seemed impressed. "Wow, that sounds pretty cool. I always suspected that you had a creative side."

"Actually it was Tim's idea. He said that DragonVow fit us because that's what our goals are… well, kind of."

Gregor nodded. "Well I'm still happy that you are doing well so far. We'll have to see how today goes just to see if we still feel confident." He looked at his teammate, "well, Albert and I got our text already, so we'll be heading off. Chase doesn't waste any time."

"See you later, and don't get blown away by the wind, ok?" Albert gave me a clownish grin and sauntered off with Gregor following. At least I wasn't afraid of clowns.

I waved to Team Specs and decided to wait with my teammate for our Pokémon to get healed. I would've liked to talk with Ouri or Malcolm as well, but they were nowhere to be found and I still had to try to get along with Tim. Sure we could battle together, but that didn't change the fact that we still bumped heads and got annoyed with each other. After talking with Gregor my hopes were strangely high for the day. Or maybe it was because I could feel confident about Tim and I doing a great tag-team battle. Either way, I smiled as Tim and sighed. "Are you ready for today?"

He nodded, his usual dark outlook on life present when he was out of a cave. "Sure."

I almost expected Luke to think something to Tim to make him frown, but Luke was being healed. I shrugged and tried not to let Tim's negativity drag me down. "I'm kinda scared to think about what gruesome tasks we'll go through, but I feel like I could climb a mountain!"

"Confident enough to fight a dragon Pokémon?" Tim added darkly.

"Not that confident!" I jumped. What was with him and my fear of dragons? He kept bringing it up and almost seemed to enjoy making me nervous or angry on several occasions. "Stop mentioning dragons, ok?"

He stayed quiet, staring off into the distance. Maybe Malcolm was right when he said that Tim spaced off like me. _I guess we are both thinkers… But Tim knows what to do with his life and can think about that. I still don't know what I'm going to be when I grow up_. But now wasn't the time to be self-loathing. I could do that later if I felt like crap after a first challenge paired with Tim.

Nurse Joy called out our names and we came to pick up our Pokémon. All of my Pokémon were caught in regular red and white Pokéballs, but Tim had a wider variety in his collection. He had a dusk ball, a luxury ball, a regular Pokéball, and a great ball. I was familiar with each of his Pokémon to know which Pokémon was in which ball. I suppose changing up the capturing device would help with identifying which Pokémon to call out. My method of remembering was a sharpie mark on the red part of the Pokéball. Len's was marked with a 'T' (for Tympole), Sundazzle's with an 'L' (Larvesta), Ole's with an 'S', and Pebbles' with a 'V'.

I stopped daydreaming about my Pokémon and placed my Pokéballs on my trainer's belt.

Tim pulled out his Xtransceiver and frowned. I swore that he had the one unread message notice in the corner of his screen. "No word from Brady yet." He huffed and pocketed his Pokéballs.

"Really?" I tried to glance at his device's screen but he closed it and put it in a pocket in his backpack before I got a good look at it. "I thought there was a new message on there."

"I don't want to read it." He avoided my gaze and walked back to where we were sitting before getting our Pokémon.

I was torn on whether I should pester him about it or just let it drop. Sure we were partners and supposed to work together, but was it my business to pry further into his life than I already had? I decided to let him keep his privacy, especially since Luke was still in his Pokéball and wouldn't be a peace maker if I ended up offending Tim.

I shrugged and felt my Xtransceiver ring. Of all the times for a possible call from home, this wasn't the best time. Especially since mom pretended that the line went glitch. I pulled out the ringing device and sighed happily. It wasn't a call from my parents; Brady had contacted us at last. [Team DragonVow, come to the balance beams north of town for your first team activity. I understand it's windy, but bird trainers will learn to live with wind. Brady.]

I was about to point out the message to Timmy-Tim-Tim, but he had received the text already and was standing up to leave. _I swear that guy is __**always **__one step ahead of me!_ I sprinted to catch up with the other DragonVow member and realized that I wanted to ask about the method in which he got my number. "Hey, I just remembered to ask you: how'd you get my number earlier today? I don't remember giving it to you."

He smirked over his shoulder and replied, "Participants are allowed to have each other's numbers. I just happened to ask Cliff for yours."

"You could've asked **me** instead." I stated and exited out of the Pokémon Center before he could. I bet if Luke had seen it, he would've thought something to Tim about it. But I didn't need to think about showing up Tim, I had to work with him to do whatever contest thing was going on at Brady's place up by the balance bars. Yup, I totally called that my luck would bring me to the balance beams. I marched forward, not caring if Tim was behind me or not. I held my confidence from earlier and even though I was fighting for breath in the wind storm, I still felt motivated.

Come to think of it, I wasn't one hundred percent sure of how this day was supposed to work out. So Tim and I were supposed to start out at Brady, then do something and go to another trainer, or were we supposed to spend the first day with one trainer and go to the others tomorrow? And were each of the gym underlings going to make us complete a task of some sorts? It sure seemed like it. _Ha, The Amazing Race, Mistralton style! Teams of two people cooperating to complete a task. Wonder if there's a time limit… and a million dollars for the reward. Yeah right…_

Just as I rounded the bend of trees to find the underling Brady (who still seemed liked Cliff to me), a terrifying gust of wind pummeled me, forcing most of my breath of out my lungs. I stumbled against the gust to stay upright and regularly breathing. _Come on, why can't the weather be nicer today? Landorus, or you other wind Pokémon, why don't you lay off?_ I ended up leaning against a nearby tree to regain my breath.

A person went up to me and yelled over the wind. "You're here! Where's your partner, then we can get started!" This was obviously Brady in a flight suit. He even had goggles on as if he was in a plane.

I inhaled and replied as loudly as I could, "Tim's right behind me. Shouldn't we practice in a less windy area?"

"What?" Brady yelled through the wind.

I raised my voice and called out, "He's right behind me, and shouldn't we get out of the wind!"

"Nah, the wind is fine. A kind hiker will let us go into his house while I give you two instructions." The Gym underling yelled out. "Oh, there's Tim!"

I looked in the direction that the man was looking and saw a pretty funny sight. While I was walking ahead of Tim he had called out his only non-flying Pokémon Archen. And even funnier was that Archen was perched on his head, holding out its wings, and pretending to be flying. Archen looked so happy and Tim so solemn and bored that it made me burst out laughing.

Tim marched up to me and gave me a look that showed that he was angry if not a hint embarrassed of his Pokémon. "It's not funny!" insisted the dark-haired Tim.

"Sure, then if that's not funny (or kind of adorable of Archen) then your natural hair color is black!" I continued laughing a little in spite of myself. Archen was just so happy and flapping its wings and Tim so serious it was just humorous to me.

He sneered at me and looked at Brady. "What are we doing?" He yelled through the howling wind.

Brady waved to both of us. "I'll tell you both when we get inside!" he called out and started walking up a set of stairs carved into the small hill instead of directing us towards the balance beams.

"What'd he say?" Tim asked me.

"He said 'come with me if you want to live!'" I smirked and clarified, "Fine, he said for us to follow him and he'll explain things to us when we are inside." I stared at the fossil bird on his head and chuckled a little. "I can't take you seriously with Archen up there…"

"I didn't hear that last part, but I'm sure it wasn't important." Tim replied and marched up the stairs after Brady.

_Fine._ I hugged my arms closer to my stomach and bent my head down to keep my hood from flying off my head. Today I also had my hair in a ponytail to keep it from whipping around in my face. A sudden gust had me staggering once again and I remembered Albert's words of 'don't get blown away'. I cursed the wind again and continued to stumble onward, glancing up occasionally to check that Tim and Brady were still in front of me.

I reeled from a second blast of wind, this time stronger and colder than before. I squinted my eyes and looked up to see a Pokémon face peering at me from the tall grass. Before I could register what the Pokémon was, a howling whirlwind surrounded me and tossed me into the air.

What else would a respecting girl like me do at a time like that? I closed my eyes, flailed my limbs, and screamed bloody murder as my feet flew out from under me. I felt myself falling and falling, but I knew I wasn't that high up. I opened my eyes and fought to keep them open in the howling and bitter winds that dried my eyes. I glanced down to where my back was (since my back was facing down and not my legs) and saw that I was hovering in a tornado of sorts.

I screamed again and this time I saw both guys run up to the closest part of land to me, since I was someone floating over where the tall grass was.

"**LANDORUS!"** I cursed and tried to get myself out of the whirlwind.

I couldn't hear what Brady and Tim were saying, but I heard Tim's degrading tone through the wind.

Then I realized that this couldn't be a regular tornado to keep me hovering in one spot. I turned my head slowly to the right to see if the windstorm was a Pokémon's doing. I screamed again, this time it felt like I was letting part of my soul escape from my mouth. A strange, humanoid Pokémon with a cloud instead of feet was snickering a wheezy laugh at me. That wasn't Landorus it was one of the others; Tornadus. It had green skin, a bushy white moustache, two purple horns, and a long purple tail with swirling cream signs.

"**TORNADUS**!" I screeched. _What did it want with me?_ I kicked my legs to get out of its whirlwind of cold air. "LET ME DOWN!"

"Tor-tor…" the legendary cyclone Pokémon wheezed happily, revealing human-like teeth in its mouth. It kept its arms crossed and seemed to enjoy my helplessness.

"LET ME DOWN **NOW**!" I yelled again, this time aiming a withering look at the Pokémon. _Come on, I've got to intimidate it! Work for me angry look._

The cyclone Pokémon looked past me and at the two guys on the ground, paying me no heed. I saw my chance and tried to punch it or something while it was distracted. Unfortunately, I wasn't used to moving in a whirlwind and I ended up doing nothing.

I growled to myself and saw that Tim had called out his Cryogonal… and it was aiming an ice-beam at Tornadus and me. "ARE YOU **CRAZY**? I'M IN FRONT OF THIS THING! DON'T ATTACK ME!" Sure, what was teamwork for anyways, freezing your teammate? Tim wouldn't give a rip if I ended up frozen. Maybe he was even considering letting Tornadus keep me.

The green humanoid Pokémon adjusted the whirlwind so that I was more of a shield now from an ice-beam attack for it. "Nadus Tor Tornadus!" It proclaimed loudly in a strange and insubstantial voice, like the one most people say they hear in the wind.

Cryogonal's ice-beam went high, but I still was annoyed. Tim had tried to aim for the Pokémon even while I was being used as a human shield. "TIMOTHY!" I yelled back angrily. I couldn't hear if he was saying anything back over the wind. _Oh, just you wait until I get down there! I'll give you a piece of my mind about aiming for friendlies!_

I was getting sick of the constant feeling of falling, so I pulled out a Pokéball labeled with an 'S'. I was willing to be shocked by Ole if Tornadus would get shocked as well. Before I could call out the creeper fish, I noticed something move behind the cyclone Pokémon.

"Nadus Tornadus-dus Tor!" It proclaimed. Unbeknownst to it, Luke had materialized behind it and was taking his mask off his tail. What happened next was very strange.

Luke the Yamask quickly slapped his small golden mask over the Tornadus' nose and promptly disappeared. The golden mask of Luke's former face then expanded to fit the Pokémon's larger face. Finally, the golden masked Pokémon turned its head toward me and waved casually.

Just as I was about to question my sanity, the whirlwind that had kept me aloft in the air vanished and I plummeted down.


	31. Shock

**Utopia's POV**

As I said before, my sanity was at stake, not to mention that the gold-masked Tornadus suddenly dropped me from the whirlwind. _I wonder if a nice new mask made it change its mind._ I yelled in surprise as I fell for real down to the ground.

My landing was actually much better than I thought. I think Brady caught me, though I wasn't sure since my eyes were closed. He gave a grunt as I fell on top of him, but his grunt almost sounded like Tim. I opened my eyes and saw that Tim was in fact the one who had caught me.

Tim glanced at me quickly and looked at the masked Tornadus. Now that the whirlwind wasn't cutting out my hearing, I heard him say, "Good job, she's ok."

The masked green humanoid creature gave Tim a thumbs-up sign in return. "Tor-tor Tornadus-dus-dus." It commented.

"Tornadus can't use telepathy, Luke. We can't understand you."

First off, I jumped at the fact that Tim was kind of holding me. Secondly, he was addressing the Pokémon as Luke. But Luke had disappeared! I gave Tim an uneasy grin and stood up on my own. _Thanks and all, but I'm fine now…_ Then I turned on him and said through the still-present wind, "What are you talking about? That's not Luke. He disappeared somewhere. That creature just has his mask on its face!"

Tim was about as awkward about his catching me as I was, almost pretending that it didn't happen. He gave me a slightly haughty look and stated, "You don't know much about Yamasks, do you?" my blank look led him to explain a little. He pointed at the formerly malicious Pokémon and said, "Ghost Pokémon can possess people and Pokémon alike. Yamasks simply do it in a more visual way with a mask showing that they are in control."

I gaped at the Tornadus being controlled by Luke. I could hardly understand it. "So, if I try to wear Luke's mask…?"

"He can possess you. Exactly." Tim nodded, arms crossed. He waved again at the Pokémon with a gold mask. "Ok, Luke, take care of it."

The masked Tornadus being controlled by Luke saluted and flew off at a surprising rate. After it was gone, the wind calmed down to only about ten miles an hour, a breeze compared to what I had just felt. I guess Tornadus' presence might have caused a windstorm after all. _You see, even in the Unova region Pokémon control the weather!_

Brady seemed to be speechless and was staring open-mouthed at Tim.

I didn't forget that Tim had almost hit me with an ice-beam though. "Hey, why'd you send an ice-beam my way? Didn't you think that I could have been hit?" I huffed at him. Sure, I could have been thanking him for saving me from the tornado/whirlwind, but I didn't want to be that grateful too soon. Also, it was kind of weird to say thanks to a person I still didn't like and was degrading to me.

As expected, Tim gave me a degrading look. "Really, didn't you see that it was a diversion? I needed Luke to sneak up behind Tornadus, so I had to bring out a threatening ice-type Pokémon."

I took a deep breath to retort, but came up with nothing. I had been scared for my life, feeling like I was continuously falling, and I hadn't seen Tim's plan. Even after that scare (especially since it was a legendary Pokémon) Tim was able to come up with a plan that could work to help me and get the Tornadus away -once again, proving to be an amazing strategist.

Brady was still staring at Tim with disbelief.

After my rage was satisfied, I felt my knees wobble. I stumbled and fell to my bum, panting hard. I had just **survived** an encounter with a **legendary **Pokémon. If it wasn't for my partner I could have been taken across the region and left in some remote spot, dropped from the heights, or even** eaten**. The shock sank into me and I could hardly move. I felt dizzy and my breathing was faster than normal. I wished I could control my body and make it calm down, but I couldn't. I almost knew how it felt like to not be in control of my own body, as if possessed by a ghost Pokémon.

I tried to look back up at Tim and Brady and I mumbled, "Maybe I should take a nap…" and then I felt myself fall forward and everything went dark.

…

**Tim's POV**

_And sure, no 'thank you' for me. She just asks questions and then mumbles something about a nap and falls forward. Ungrateful little…_ I glowered at Utopia and waited for her to get back up. _Come on, now you're just being over dramatic. We still have a task to complete._

Strangely Utopia didn't wake up from her weird sleeping position. "What's wrong?" I asked not entirely sympathetic.

Brady, who had been no help whatsoever in my strategy to help Utopia, finally snapped out of his amazement and walked over to where Utopia was laying. The man in the flight suit and goggles stared at me and complimented my plan. "That was incredible! I thought that since you had the least amount of badges… but then you…"

"Um, yeah, I know my Pokémon. Now I think Utopia fainted or something. Shouldn't we try to wake her up?" I asked. _Thanks for the praise, but I don't think a knocked out team member will help me whatsoever in this contest that you will be hosting._

Brady snapped out of his wonder and stooped low to check on the Asian girl. He held her arm and checked her pulse as well as breathing. I was surprised by his medical knowledge. The Gym Trainer looked up to me, all wonder gone from his face. "I think she's in shock. She needs some medical help, and I know what to do." He adjusted Utopia's limp body and lifted her up by her armpits. "Come on and help me take her to the hiker's cabin." He instructed.

"But isn't it easier to get to the Pokémon center?" I frowned. That's where the best medical help would be, right? Utopia's limpness was getting a little eerie to me. If she was pretending I'd feel tempted to send our Archen on her.

"No, the cabin is much closer, it's right behind me." He nodded with his head towards a fine trail of smoke coming from a log cabin not 50 yards away. "Come on, take up her legs and I'll lead you. Hurry, she's in shock. The sooner we can help her, the better."

I glanced back at Crygonal, returned it, and picked up Utopia's almost lifeless legs. Along with Brady, I hauled Utopia a short distance to the cabin Brady was so keen to visit. I couldn't describe how I felt at that moment really. I felt angry that I wasn't really thanked by Utopia for me saving her from a Tornadus, anxious to when Luke would get back, and worried about why Utopia was somehow knocked out. I didn't think Tornadus really harmed her. Also, it didn't help that I couldn't do any sort of competition stuff with her out of it. Frustration and worry, that worked.

After a little ways of hauling Utopia, a kindly-looking hiker welcomed us in and let us lay Utopia on his bed. Brady set about to working of helping my partner. He removed her outer coat and backpack so that she could lay down better. Then he grabbed a blanket, balled it up and elevated her feet with it, then took another blanket to cover her with.

I didn't know what to do, so I ended up watching Brady work, staring at the hiker, and began to take in the interior of the cabin. I could tell that this hiker was a slight hunter as well, with a small collection of Sawsbuck antlers and a couple of Basculin trophies on the wall. Obviously this hiker didn't consider hunting the same as poaching.

I rolled my shoulders after a little waiting and walked outside of the cabin door to keep a look-out for Luke. While I searched the cloudy grey skies for him, I began to puzzle over why a Tornadus would be there in the first place and why it would single out Utopia. It was certainly weird how she kept getting things thrown at her, what with meeting a foreigner, making her feel like telling me and Malcolm to break up our fights, with that strange Jamie saying 'you are utopia', and so on.

_So why in Unova would a legendary wind Pokémon attack her?_ It decided to use her as a shield **later on **meaning that it wasn't thinking of that in the first place. It wasn't scared or running for its life and it was only afraid of me when I called out Cryogonal. Was it trying to communicate something to her? Or maybe it was because she used 'Landorus' as a curse. _That would actually be funny._ But no, that couldn't be it… Maybe Luke caught what it said.

_Well, it happened, so what can I do about it now?_ A legendary Pokémon was making a wind storm, pounced on my partner, was having fun levitating her in a whirlwind, then ended up defending itself with her. Was there a reason for it? Didn't the famous trio capture and tame the kami trio Tornadus, Thudurus, and Landorus from ravaging the Unova region? So why was it acting out of line?

"Tim, I think Utopia will be fine now. She'll just rest a little now." Brady appeared by my side and placed a hand on my shoulder. "You can relax now." he grinned.

I gave him my 'I am not amused' look. "Good. But this whole incident with a powerful legendary Pokémon has got me a little more worried." I was not going to feed any inclination of his that I liked Utopia in any possible way.

Brady gave me a look to show that he disagreed, but he didn't defend his idea. He looked out into the sky with me and admitted, "You really surprised me with your planning. I figured that since your team had the least amount of badges… not to mention that you only have two…" he shrugged and mused, "But I think with that kind of skill that you pass my test."

I gave him a side-long glance through the corner of my eye. "What?" I had passed? _Wait, did he use Tornadus as a test?_

"My test was to have you two walk across the balance beams and reach the base of Twist Mountain while tied to each other, ensuring that if one of you fell off the beam that you'd both fall. But I'm in control of the little obstacle, so I say that you two pass, but mainly from your tact." The Gym trainer replied.

I was still unsure if him giving us a passing grade for standing up to a powerful Pokémon was a good enough excuse. "So did you call Skyla about this?" I asked. "And does she know much about Tornadus? It's the only pure flying type Pokémon, so I would think she would know a bit."

The trainer nodded. "I called Skyla while you were out here thinking. She's busy at the moment, but she'll check up with you and Utopia later when she has the time. She's not an expert on the kami trio, but she knows enough about flying Pokémon to know some generalizations. And this day is supposed to be devoted to getting to as many trainers as you can in one day, so I think it'll be fine for you to wait on Utopia to wake up and recover." He nodded and tried to capture my attention with eye contact. "You do understand that your partner went into shock and fainted from trauma of that encounter, right?"

_There wasn't anything incredibly scary about that encounter though,_ I thought. _How could she be so scared to faint after a little run-in with Tornadus? And if she was that affected by a Tornadus, what would she be like if she faced a __**dragon**__, her phobia?_ I had a bad feeling that if she ever encountered a dragon that I'd have to take over for any kind of battling or planning. "Ok, trauma. That's easily recovered from, right?"

"Maybe…" Brady said with a strange, concerned look. "She might have some psychological problems or fears of Tornadus or even of this place when she wakes up. It's hard to tell sometimes…"

_That's nonsense. Once Utopia wakes up everything will be back to normal._ I thought cynically. Thankfully I was saved from replying to this dreary topic when Luke floated up to my face. I gave him a big grin and held up my hand. "Good job, Luke! That was amazing work!"

Luke didn't return the high-five, but grinned anyways. He asked seriously, _"Is Utopia alright?"_

"Yes, once she wakes up she'll be fine." I replied confidently.

Brady seemed annoyed that I hadn't taken his warning seriously, but amazed that I could understand a Pokémon.

"_When she wakes up?" _Luke asked and peered into the doorway. _"I thought that she was awake when I possessed the cyclone Pokémon…"_

"Yeah, she blacked out from shock after you left." I said solemnly as to not sound too flippant.

"You're an amazing little Pokémon." Brady admitted. He looked at me and asked, "How can you communicate with it?"

"Luke is a 'him', not an 'it'. And **he** uses telepathy to communicate with me." I clarified. Why did so many people not expect a ghost Pokémon to use telepathy? I turned back to my friend and asked, "So where did you send Tornadus?"

He closed his eyes in mirth and thought back, _"I dropped it off in that one southern water route by Nuvema. It's incredible to possess that thing; he can travel around Unova so fast! And when I took the mask off, he was slightly conscious, unlike others who are normally knocked out. Legendary Pokémon are not to be messed around with!"_

Nuvema was pretty much the furthest town away from Mistralton, being in the southeastern corner of Unova while Mistralton was northwest. I was surprised that Luke could go all the way there are come back all in one day. "Ok, good. It wouldn't be bothering us for a while then. Did you catch anything it (or he) said to clue us in on why it attacked?"

Luke shook his little black head, his golden mask on his tail along with it. _"Not really. It sounded like it was just out causing mischief…"_

"But why after the Kwester Trio calmed and tamed them? I thought they were supposed to stop terrorizing Unova, and here Tornadus is violating that command…" I mused.

Brady was staring at me curiously, obviously not tuned into what Luke was thinking.

"_Well, let's think about it inside. I want to see how Utopia is doing."_ Luke thought nervously. He obviously cared about his newest friend. And was there something in his tone that hinted something darker?

Did Luke really not hear what the Pokémon was talking about? And if Tornadus had been awake when Luke stopped possessing him, couldn't Luke have asked about the Pokémon's motives? But if he did know, then why wasn't he saying anything about it to me? Maybe I was too analytical for my own good and Luke was telling the truth…

"Ok, fine." I turned to the cabin and went inside. Luke followed me closely, leaving a befuddled Brady to wonder what Luke could have said to me. But I didn't really care. This felt like my job to solve this strange encounter anyways.

Luke floated forward and peered at Utopia's sleeping form. He paused and thought to me, _"Do you like her?"_

"What kind of stupid question is that?" I snapped back. "Of course not."

"Just wondering… because even if Utopia didn't believe that everything you touch dies, I do…"

I didn't know how to respond to that. I sat down in a nearby chair and began to consider more of why that Pokémon would show up and blatantly cause mischief… I certainly didn't want to think about my notorious killing touch… then a terrible idea formed in my head that didn't have to do anything with Tornadus. _What if Malcolm finds out about this?_ I could end up in huge trouble from him for letting Utopia get hurt…

…

After what felt like a short time, Utopia started to stir in her sleep. Luke was of course excited to see her awake and recovered, and I wanted a little more appreciation from her after I caught her and got Tornadus away with my own wit and Pokémon aiding me. All she could do when she was rescued from the whirlwind was ask questions and then faint.

Brady advised us to not wake her up, and to let her wake herself up. Luke didn't like the idea and paced around (gah, **floated** around, he can't pace without feet) feverishly. Only now could I tell that if Luke had been a human, Utopia would have been a crush for him. He certainly warmed up to her faster than anyone else.

After a while of waiting, Utopia finally opened her eyes. She lay in the bed, trying to put together possibly where she was and what had happened. She moved her head over in Luke and my direction and murmured, "Where's…? How'd I get here? I thought I was still by the balance beams…" She gave me a weak glare and said, "Is this a trick?"

Well, she certainly seemed like her normal self and she didn't sound like she had lost any memory. I was about to retort and ask for some gratitude, but Luke floated up to her face and thought happily, _"Utopia! I'm so glad you're awake! How are you?"_

She gave his mask a weird look and said, "If I wear that mask you possess me, right? Or was that a dream?"

"_Nope, it's real. I guess I didn't tell you that yet, huh?"_ he admitted sheepishly.

Utopia sat up in her bed and stared at the blanket that had elevated her feet. "Did I pass out back there?"

"Yeah, you've been sleeping for a week." I said darkly, hoping to tease her. It was always so amusing to see her reactions.

"A WEEK?" She nearly jumped. "Am I still in the finals? Who gave up?" She asked in a frenzy.

I laughed coldly and said, "Not really. It's only been an hour since you passed out."

She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "That's not very funny, Tim."

"Hey, last time I checked you owe me a few thanks for saving your butt from a cyclone Pokémon."

Utopia paused and looked down at the blanket Brady had thrown over her. She seemed a little ashamed or something to that extent. She gave a shallow sigh and said, "Fine, sorry for not saying it sooner, but thanks for saving me and stuff… if Luke hadn't used his mask and your Cryogonal made that distraction… I don't even want to think about it…"

I leaned back in the chair, satisfied with her gratitude. "Ok, you're welcome."

"And Tim, thanks for catching me…" She admitted as a last-minute thought. "I hope I didn't hurt you, or else I would feel really sucky…"

I hid my surprise. _So she did kind of care if she hurt me or not._ "If I get any internal damage later, I'll blame you. But for now I feel fine." I retorted teasingly.

"There you go again!" She huffed and turned away from me.

_What did I do now?_ Luke gave me a look and I shrugged to him. Then I returned to my complacent look when Utopia looked at me again. "What?" I asked flatly.

"You keep on doing that."

"Doing what?"

The angry Asian seemed to have her strength restored. She was on the verge of stomping to her feet and retorting in my face. "I try to be nice to you and you turn it into a tease!" She replied, almost in a tone of hurt.

I almost felt bad right there, like when I was guilty of thinking of trying to use her fear of dragons against her. But I wasn't completely regretful. I didn't want to accept her worry over me, or any other nice thing she did for me or else I might end up… I don't know, just something I don't want. And once again I didn't know how to respond to that statement.

Luke looked between the two of us humans and thought to me, _"Maybe you should try to be nicer back…"_

_She's a partner, not a friend!_ I wanted to answer him so badly with. Then I heard the dreaded sound of Brady talking to someone other than the hiker… _Oh dammit all!_ I thought and tried to look out of the doorway to see if it was Malcolm and his Archie partner come to take Brady's little task. If it was, I'd be in for a lecture, if not all-out fight!


	32. PokeRinger

**A/N: This starts out a little backwards in time, before Tornadus left.**

**Malcolm's POV**

"Well this is new…"

I heartily agreed to my partner Archie's statement. He and I stood just out of ear shot (which wasn't all that far since there was a windstorm) of our first trainer that we were supposed to meet up with: Cliff. However, Cliff wasn't alone. In fact, Ouri Greene and Guy Fellow along with their gym trainer were waiting all together around a strange setup of hooks and balloons.

The balloons were whipping around in the wind, held to the ground by strings of sorts. And a circular area was drawn in the grass of the forest, with it divided like a Pokéball. A post with two hooks sat at each end.

The people noticed us and beckoned to us. Cliff, from what I assumed as head-honcho of the Gym Trainers, announced over the howling wind, "Come closer, we have to explain this game to you!"

"It almost looks like a PokéRinger competition, but the hooks are all wrong…" Archie admitted as we came into the circular playing area.

"What's that?" I asked. I was almost happy that my partner was pretty experienced and the like. I didn't have to try to be the all-knowing hero around him, which was a nice change. What's more, Archie was from Sinnoh so he knew lots of things that we Unovian-born had never heard of (and I in turn could inform him of more Unovian things).

Archie explained as a gust of wind tossed the balloons around, "A PokéRinger competition is where flying Pokémon compete to get a ring from a balloon in the center of a stadium and fly the ring down to their hook at the bottom for a goal. But this is much different…"

I shrugged and offered him a word of cheeriness, "But hey, that's what Cliff's going to do right? He'll tell us what to do and how to play. It looks like fun." It actually kind of reminded me of a game I played with others during school. _Ah, the good ol' school days._

Cliff, the gym trainer Arnold (who looked more beast than Archie), Ouri, Guy Fellow, Archie, and I all created a huddle to talk with the wind still whipping at us. Cliff started explaining the rules, "Ok, this is a competition sort of game. Arnold and I decided to pair up and hold this unique sort of game early on in the challenge. In fact, think that you might have to do this later.

"Anyway, this game is much like the Hoenn and Sinnoh game of PokéRinger-"

"I thought so." Archie muttered.

Cliff went on, "-but we changed the rules a little bit so that this game can be a team competition. I like to call this game a combination of 'capture the flag' and PokéRinger. Team Shining Luxray will be facing off against Team Treble Clef. The goal is for each team to protect their own ring on their side while trying to steal the opponents ring and bringing it to the other side of the boundary marker. This will all be done with your flying Pokémon, one Pokémon for each of you."

Ooh, this sounded very fun! I could hardly wait to start talking strategy with Archie to see how we could pull off guarding a ring and getting an enemy ring at the same time.

Cliff also mentioned the rules, "The Pokémon are allowed to attack each other, but not in a way that would be fatal or hospitalizing. Also, the Pokémon must be able to fly. If a Pokémon drops an enemy's ring, the ring goes back to its place on the hook and the Pokémon goes back to its side. Once one team successfully steals the opponent's ring three times, the winning team will go on to the next challenge. If there's a long time of wait between an arriving team, I'll be the losing team's opponent. There are five teams after all."

"Great, let's get started!" I pulled from the huddle and pumped my fist. I looked at Ouri and Guy and held out my hand, "Even if we have to fight against you no hard feelings, right bro?"

Ouri Greene nodded and shook my hand in return. "And same for you." He was a nice kid. Utopia did have a good choice in friends.

"Hey, sweet name for the team." I gave the green-haired guitarist a thumbs-up.

"You too, what is a Luxray anyways?" Ouri asked.

"A Sinnoh lion of sorts. It's like an amazing Liepard-like creature with a big mane and is electric-type. It's pretty beast! And is your name for your music?"

This time Guy the dancer answered, "Yeah, Treble Clef for that one music symbol. We thought it fit us 'cause he can play a guitar and I can dance. We're the musically inclined pair. So what's your story?" He was holding his beanie-like hat on his head to keep it from flying off his dreads.

Normally other people would hate socializing with opponents, but I didn't. What could I say; I liked to talk to everyone! I nodded and said, "Cool, cool. And Shining Luxray is ours because together we have nineteen badges and Luxray is number nineteen in the Sinnoh Pokédex, where Archie is from."

"Man, you from over there?" Guy turned to my sailor partner and beamed his pearly whites at him. "That's cool!"

Archie nodded. "Yeah, it's nice over there…"

Cliff and Arnold seemed a little irked that we were being all friendly instead of competitive and that we hadn't even started on the little challenge. I would rather talk and hope the wind calmed down before getting serious.

"So, Guy-" I started but ended up being interrupted by the Gym Trainers.

"What are you waiting for? Shouldn't you begin the game?" Arnold, the buff mechanic crossed his arms over his pecs and glared at us intimidatingly. I got a shiver just by looking at him; his intimidation was certainly working for him.

And conveniently, something happened to distract us from his statement. A huge gust of wind nearly blew me off my feet. I looked up in the sky to catch a glimpse of a very fast-moving green Pokémon before it vanished. After that huge gust of wind, the windstorm quieted. Really! The wind storm simply fell down to a mere breeze!

My Pokémon mental-encyclopedia came to the conclusion that a powerful flying-type Pokémon had just left the area -one that made windstorms. _Wait, that couldn't be Tornadus, could it?_ As far as I could recall, Tornadus was the windstorm Pokémon… but what would it be doing here of all places? And did anyone run into it?

I glanced at Archie and the others. Ouri seemed to be interested in the flight of what I supposed to be Tornadus, staring after it with awe. Maybe he was a fan of legendary Pokémon. Guy and Archie however seemed to think that now was a better time to start the contest instead of staring at the mystery Pokémon's departure. Cliff and Arnold almost looked put out that the little game of 'capture the ring' was going to be easier now.

I shrugged and turned to my partner. "Ok, you ready for this? And are you going to use any of your Sinnoh Pokémon?"

"I don't know if they are allowed…" Archie admitted and gave Cliff a questioning look. "Am I allowed to use a non-Unovian Pokémon?"

Cliff shrugged. "As long as it's a flying-type I don't really care."

I was excited to see a strange and new kind of Pokémon. Archie nodded and pulled out a scuffed up great ball. He threw it in the air and a light red light flashed out of it, almost a shade or too different from the normal shade for Unovian Pokéballs. A strange, small bird materialized out of the Pokéball. It had the head the shape of a musical note, red beak, poofy collar of white feathers, blue wings, and a yellow and green breast. It was pretty much a colorful, almost preschool-like Pokémon.

"What is that thing?" I asked politely.

"This is Chatot. She's pretty powerful for being so little. And I'm guessing you're using Braviary?"

I nodded and crouched to get a better look at the incredibly rare Pokémon. I bet my cousins would love to get a picture of this Pokémon! "Yeah, nice Pokémon. She's so multi colored…" I cleared my throat and figured that I could dote over his rare Pokémon another time. "Alright, Braviary! Let's show them!" I stood up and flashed my Pokéball. Braviary came out with a fearsome shriek and landed on the ground, large talons raking the earth.

Ouri and Guy called out their Pokémon: Swanna and Emolga.

Cliff held up his hand and yelled, "You have five minutes to converse with your partner on the best strategy to work out. Then after I blow the whistle, the game will start!"

"Got it!" I turned to Archie Graham and asked, "So, what do you think our Pokémon will do the best at?"

"Well, Chatot is small and is high leveled, so she can move fast. She'd be a good seeker, and then Braviary is big, so he can guard to best. Does that work?" Archie observed as he took his Chatot on his arm and stroked its head.

"I think so. That will work. So what do we do about Guy's Emolga? It's an electric /flying Pokémon. If it uses an electric attack we'll be toast." I mused. It almost seemed cheap of Guy to use an electric/flying Pokémon, but I guess we'd just have to try to work around it.

"We can only try to utilize our Pokémon's agility for that. And since the wind is not as harsh, the bird Pokémon can maneuver better." Archie said again. He was an experienced trainer, I could take his word.

I looked over at Ouri and Guy talking their plan of action then they turned back to us. They were ready. I felt the surge of enthusiasm empower me. I could trust in Braviary and Chatot's power to win this!

Cliff gave a loud blow on the whistle and the match began. I directed Braviary to start protecting the ring while Archie left his Chatot fly high into the sky the see if she could sneak past the Emolga and Swanna. However, it looked like Guy and Ouri had already expected as much.

"Swanna! Air-slash on the weird small Pokémon!" Ouri directed.

"Emolga, stun it with electro ball!" Guy added.

_Oh fudge._ Electro Ball would be very powerful on a fast Pokémon like Chatot! I had to help Archie's Pokémon some way! "Braviary, Tail wind! Help Chatot out!" My large Pokémon (the largest on the field) chirped to me and summoned up a gust of wind blowing in our favor.

The slight gust of wind Braviary sent up did help. Chatot was able to use the gust to narrowly avoid the air slash attack and electro ball entirely, even causing Swanna to panic and avoid the friendly fire of the electro ball. I gave Archie a smile and continued to watch Chatot with a few glances to my Braviary.

Chatot flew on, faster than both Swanna and Emolga and had no problem of getting to the goal. My heart soared as I felt the taste of victory. But that was short-lived.

On the way back from the goal, Chatot had to take the wind head-on, making my Pokémon's tail wind hindering. And as a result, Swanna caught up and used an air-slash on the ring, knocking it out of Chatot's beak. Chatot flew back to her side while Ouri replaced the ring to its rightful spot. _Fudge!_

"Ok, the tail-wind will subside soon, so what do we need to do differently? They've got two Pokémon defending so far, which makes it hard to get a good attack." I spoke my thoughts aloud. I couldn't help it if I talked more than I thought. I turned to Archie and apologized, "Sorry, I thought a tailwind attack would help."

"I thought it would as well. But that's fine. Let's just let Braviary continue to defend and I'll have Chatot feint them a few times and tire them out." He replied. Archie (I guessed) was going to start using Sinnoh strategies. I hoped that his way of fighting could combat this seemingly defensive team.

Wait, what was I, chopped liver? I could help! I had the biggest Pokémon on the field; maybe Braviary would be able to lead a powerful offensive while Chatot weaved through the opposition?

I told Archie my idea and he agreed. "When the tail wind ends," he replied in a low tone, "we'll try that."

While Chatot flitted around to make the other team wary, I started to whisper to Braviary so that I wouldn't have to yell out commands for the other side to hear. Once I was sure my Pokémon understood (which didn't take long since I've known him since he was an eaglet), I went back to my spot in the field to wait for the tail wind to calm.

Thankfully it didn't take long. As soon as the tail wind vanished, Braviary sprang out from the post to attack the Emolga and Swanna with a powerful Sky drop attack. If Braviary planned it right, he could grab both Pokémon and take them up into the sky, leaving Chatot unopposed. _Man, I just love Sky Drop attack!_ It worked to perfection almost every time… well after considering that Tim had foiled it twice before.

Emolga dodged the Sky Drop, but Ouri's Swanna was caught up in Braviary's attack. _Well that didn't help… _I thought sourly. _The dangerous electric Pokémon is still going to try to attack Chatot… _I looked up as Braviary flew higher and higher.

Chatot cried out loudly, calling my attention back to it. The rare Sinnoh bird was zipping after the flying squirrel Pokémon, who was aiming for our ring. I jumped as the black and yellow electric Pokémon glided close to me, almost making Chatot crash into me from its hot pursuit. That's when I realized that Ouri and Guy knew about my Sky Drop attack and planned on me using it. Now instead of Chatot racing to get the enemy ring, the enemy was getting to our ring since the beefy guard had left.

Emolga grabbed the ring in its little paws and enveloped itself with electricity in a volt-switch attack. Chatot didn't dare try to get too close to it and Ouri's team gained a point for their steal.

Things weren't much better after that.

It took all of about forty minutes to defend our ring from three steals while attempting steals of our own, but each time the Emolga won out with its electricity. By the end of that time, Guy and Ouri had successfully ordered their Pokémon to steal the ring three times while we only took their ring once. But at least we had held them off for such a long time, right?

I'm not a pessimist, but I could feel the sting of defeat right then. Once again (as Tim had proved before) my pure power was no match for good strategy. Once the third point was made, I breathed a small sigh and looked at my partner. I was about to try to encourage him, but he already looked encouraged, as if he didn't lose at all.

"We can get the next team. I think I understand this game better…" He said with a small grin. "As long as the next group doesn't have an Emolga, we can do this."

Braviary landed by me and I stroked its large beak. "Good boy, Braviary." I praised the tired bird. Then I smiled at Archie. "You're right; we can totally win the next one. They just got lucky." I inhaled deeply and walked over to Ouri, who was getting instructions for where to go next. I waited until Cliff was done talking.

"Ok, Team Treble Clef, head up to Brady at the balance beams. Just a warning, I recently got a message from him that some strong Pokémon attacked the team there. Thankfully no one is hurt." The head Gym Trainer said calmly.

I jumped. Wasn't that Utopia's first trainer to go to? _I hope she's not hurt!_ "Was that team…?" I spaced and remembered that I had no idea what name Tim and Utopia called their team. "You know… Utopia and Tim? Was that their team that got attacked?"

The mechanic nodded. "But they are fine by Brady's account, so you don't need to worry."

Ouri gave me a meaningful look and said, "Don't worry, Malcolm, I'll check up on Utopia for you. She's tougher than she looks after all."

"Thanks, Ouri." I felt the knotting in my gut lessen. I could trust Ouri to make sure Utopia was alright.

The duo of musically-inclined people took off to the north as another duo came up to the battle field. I waved to Team Treble Clef and gulped at the sight of the next team: Junior Senior. With Pavel against us, it would be hard to win. But Braviary, Archie, Chatot, and I were ready and used to the game. That evened things out, right?

_Hang on, Utopia!_ I thought as Cliff began to explain the rules to Dan and Pavel._ I'll be right over!_

**A/N: It took quite a while to write this, mainly because action is not my forte… But no matter, enjoy the story :) And again, I like reviews. If I made any mistakes (which I do often) please call me out on them. I hate typos I miss…**

**I do not own Pokémon, but I own the souls of my characters and the plot line. Well, last time I checked… ^_^ (P.S., the chapter is 23 backwards and is posted on the 23****rd**** of January. I am happy for my favorite number!)**


	33. Celestic Tower Challenge

**Utopia's POV**

I had to admit, I was surprised that Tim had even stayed by my bed while I was out. Sure he insulted me on several occasions and always turned a moment when I was nice to him into a joke, but I was touched a little by his sense of partnership. Ok, so Luke was a better friend, but still…

I still couldn't get over the embarrassment of fainting after that encounter with Tornadus. Tim and Brady must've carried me to this cabin… I was snappy to a person who had saved me from a powerful Pokémon and I woke up an hour or so later to apologize and thank him. Really, I should be more grateful! _And then again every time I'm nice Tim shoots down the moment. What's with him and his anti-friendship?_

I stared at Tim as he peered out the doorway to see who was coming. Then I smiled at Luke, who was his sweet and friendly self. And yet somehow the thought of him being able to possess anything he slapped his mask on made me feel wary of him. As far as I knew, he could possess me while I wasn't looking or was asleep. _But Luke would never do that to me…_ I reasoned. And he was only using his mask to help me, so he wouldn't be the type to pull pranks with his possessing power.

Tim glanced over to me, and then left the room to talk with, or drive away, the other voices from the cabin. Luke stayed in the room with me and thought, _"Can you walk, Utopia?"_

"I think so…" I said as I moved my legs from their elevated position. "I've never had that bad of a shock before, but I think I'll be fine." I wasn't going to be all that eager to face a Tornadus again, but at least it didn't trump Kyurem in my little mental list of fears. I calmed by breathing and set my feet on the wooden floor. Without help of any kind I was able to stand just like I could before. I wasn't going to be incapacitated! I beamed at Luke and said, "I feel just great." I thought to mention his heroic part in the rescue, "I think I owe you thanks as well for your possessing that Tornadus." I gave him a little curtsy with an imaginary dress. I wasn't wearing a dress, but you needed a dress to curtsy. Whatever, I bowed a little to show my gratitude.

The little ghost blushed and fiddled with the mask on his tail. _"Oh, it was nothing… I mean, anything for a friend, right?"_

I gave him a nod. "You're very brave, Luke. You and Tim."

Luke turned redder and almost hid behind his mask from my flattery.

I smiled again and went to the corner where my heavier stuff was sitting. I pulled on the heavy coat and hoisted up the heavy backpack. _Ok, now I'm ready to tackle this challenge that Brady was talking about!_

Ready to go and followed by Luke, I went out into the main room of the cabin and saw to my astonishment and joy Ouri chatting with Brady and Tim. I walked up to my friend and greeted him enthusiastically. "Hey, how are things, bud?"

Tim gave me a look of surprise, as if he expected me to stay in bed for another hour or two. _Landorus no!_ I was not going to slow the team down more than I already had! "You're up." He observed passively.

Ouri gave me a concerned look and said, "I heard the most terrible thing! Brady said that a Tornadus swooped in and held you hostage in a whirlwind! Are you alright?"

I kept up my sunny mood and winked at Tim. "I'm alright thanks to my partner. I sure wouldn't want to repeat that event again, but I think I'll be fine." Again, had to show I was strong even though my mind might be reeling with strange replays of that Tornadus encounter and a possible fear of flying or falling. But hey, I was used to being in a constant state of panic. What were my early years of training about when I was outside when the sun set? Fear. _See, I was used to it_.

Brady seemed relieved as much as Ouri was (which was kind of weird since I didn't know Brady as well as I knew Ouri). "That's a relief, Utopia. If you are ready, you and your partner can go to the next challenge."

"I'm ready for the next… wait… what? I thought we were going to do **your** challenge." I bumbled in my speech. _Ok, since when did this happen? And was the Tornadus a test?_

The gym underling explained, "I think the courage of your partner counts for this challenge. You two will head out to Chase's place, right at the base of Celestial Tower." He turned to Ouri and Guy Fellow the dancer and said, "Sorry for the wait. I'll get you two ready for the challenge, ok?"

I continued to stare. It was that easy? Get attacked by a legendary Pokémon, sleep for an hour, and then go on to the next place. Sure, the experience was scary, but skipping a challenge just because I fainted? Maybe I should be more grateful. I nodded to Tim and Luke. "Ok, what are we waiting for?"

Ouri touched my shoulder and said, "I'm glad you're ok. Just try to stay out of trouble, ok? Malcolm was worried about you too." The green-haired boy sent me a warm smile. "And maybe this whole Tornadus thing means that we shouldn't take Landorus' name in vain, hmm?"

"No way! I'm sticking with my curse even after one of Landorus' lackeys attacked me!" I giggled back. "It's our catch-phrase." It was nice to hear that Malcolm also wanted to know if I was ok. He was a very friendly person, just the opposite of Tim.

My Lacunosa friend laughed lightly back. "Ok, fine." He gave Tim a careful look and said, "Thanks for helping her. I guess I judged you wrong at first. Maybe we could be friends?"

Tim shot down that idea quickly. "I don't want friends. Come on, Utopia, let's go." The dark-haired guy huffed and exited quickly.

I sent Ouri a shrug and followed after my anti-friend partner. Luke hovered by my shoulder as I went out of the cabin._ I don't remember Tim actually addressing me by my name directly before… was it a first? And if so, what changed that made Tim call me by name?_

I felt the small breeze and sighed happily. This felt much better than before; the sky was still overcast and a few stray sprinkles of rain fell, but the wind was considerably lower. It was nice weather for late autumn.

Tim paused at the balance beam and remarked, "So, balance beam or wild Pokémon?" He seemed to answer his own question as he reached in his pack and pulled out a spray can. He sprayed it as he walked along in the grass. I finally figured out what it was: a repel! But usually I sprayed it on myself, not the area around me. I dunno why he was doing it that way; maybe there was a method to his way of doing things.

Luke flew up to avoid the Pokémon repellent and I followed Tim through the tall grass. I swear, the tall grass is something eerie in of itself. It gives the feel of a horror movie just waiting to happen, with something terrible jumping out when you least expect it.

As I walked behind Tim I said, "You know, you could be a little friendlier. Ouri was grateful to you and you shot him down really quickly and bluntly."

"I don't want friends." Tim said as he sprayed the grass with repellant to keep the adventurous Pokémon at bay.

"Why not?" I asked innocently. Sure, I could understand not wanting to make friends because this competition had only one winner, but there seemed a little more to his refusal of people's friendship. I couldn't place it, but I had a hunch it had to do with Luke.

"I just don't." He said with finality, as if he was finishing the conversation.

I felt that weird sense of whether I wanted to pry more, just like back in the Pokémon center with his unread text. I looked up at Luke hovering overhead and figured I could get answers easier from him. "Ok, fine, be friendless. It's very lonely though." I muttered to my partner.

Tim heaved a sigh and stopped in his tracks. I bumped into him and he seemed to recoil a little. He gave me a glare and said, "I know it's lonely. But it's just that…" He left off and huffed angrily. "I don't want friends, just accept that. Ok?"

"All except for Luke?" _Crap, I ended up mentioning that anyways._ I braced myself for a Tim-explosion.

"Yeah!" he snapped back defensively. He turned around and marched on in a no better mood than before. I think he needed a little time in Twist Mountain to cool down.

After a few more steps we emerged out of the forest of tall grass. To the north stood the Celestial Tower, the tower where dead Pokémon were buried.

Some people have a tradition to bury their beloved Pokémon in their backyards or in a private cemetery instead of going to the Celestial Tower. _Heck it was even cheaper to bury the Pokémon in the backyard._ But there was a rumor or something about burying a Pokémon in Celestial Tower that made people want to pay the extra to let their Pokémon rest in the tower. Actually, the thought of a multi-floored gravesite didn't appeal that much to me. I liked it when bodies were buried in the ground, not in a casket in a tower…

I had been to the top of this place before. It was only a month or so before this contest. I had traveled to Mistralton, lost the gym battle, then figured that I could go on and train. Then I got distracted with the navigation of Twist Mountain and ended up in Icirrus. Then I lost to Brycen and promptly came back for this challenge.

As Tim and I neared the tower, I spotted Chase and the Team of Albert and Gregor, or Team Specs formally. Tim noticed this too and muttered, "Why are they still here? Shouldn't they have been done with that challenge before an hour? And how hard will it be for us?"

I shrugged back. He does think ahead a lot! I mused. I searched the sky for Luke out of curiosity and found him hovering a little ways off from me. He covered his nose (if you considered a Yamask face to even have a nose) and thought, "_You two stink… that repel is some nasty-smelling stuff!"_

"Hey, you ought to know not to tell a girl if she stinks!" I shot back playfully, and then giggled to show I wasn't being serious.

Luke laughed back as a giggle in my head. Tim glanced over at Luke with a slightly amused look on his face. I stared as long as I could to memorize that look Tim gave his ghost friend. It was strange to see such a blatant and unlikable person to look so happy and almost proud of his friend. Maybe one day Tim would not be so anti-friend to other people.

We of Team DragonVow reached the base of the celestial tower just in time to see Gregor and Albert shrug and go back into it. I stepped forward and asked the Gym trainer, a pilot called Chase, "Hi, do we wait for the other team to finish before going in?"

The Pilot, who was less rigid than Pavel and seemed like a friendly college-aged person instead of an adult, shook his head. "Welcome Team DragonVow. I heard you ran into some trouble, but I'm glad to see that neither of you look hurt. Skyla will drop by sometime later today to check up on ya." He cleared his throat and said conversationally, "So, here's the scoop; this challenge is to find four hidden target boards on your assigned floor, then let the Unfezant at the top of the tower hold the targets for you to hit. Once you destroy all four targets, then you get to ring the bell at the top to show that you're done."

"So why is it taking so long for the first team to finish?" Tim asked in his flat voice.

Chase admitted nervously, "Well, they say that they can't find the last target. I think a mischievous Litwick or Elgyem might be involved…" He gave us a more direct look and said, "Team Specs is searching for their stuff on the second floor. I've got some hidden in the third floor for you two. You can go on up." Chase waved us in.

Tim shrugged and led the way in.

I glanced at Luke and asked, "Is it ok for you to go in here? I mean, this is a graveyard of sorts. I don't know if you want to-"

"_I'm fine. I died a few years ago; I would think I'm over it by now."_ He thought back, then fiddled with his mask a little and glanced at Tim as if nervous.

"You can talk to your Pokémon?" Chase pointed at Luke.

Tim swung around, but I explained it before he could. I said proudly, "Yes, Luke uses telepathy to talk. And Luke isn't my Pokémon, he's with Tim." It felt wrong to say 'belongs to Tim'. I mean, Luke **was** a human; he shouldn't technically 'belong' to anyone like a servant. This is a free world for all people, current and past humans alike!

The gym trainer/underling stared at Luke. "Fascinating…"

I patted Luke's little black head and marched into the burial ground for so many other Pokémon. Boy, I was getting into the leading spirit today. I guessed that Tim and I were still butting heads on who actually ran the team. But hey, if he made things difficult for me, then why not return the favor?

Tim followed after closely and Luke floated between us. Tim didn't seem to change his expression at the sight of the numerous white caskets of deceased Pokémon but I wondered if it didn't** really** affect him. After all, he had Luke as a constant reminder of death, not to mention that he still believed that everything he touched died. Well if that was true then **I **would be dead since Tim did catch me from falling after Tornadus' lovely whirlwind. And was I? Nope!

Gregor and Albert were weaving around the second floor, scanning everything that could hide a wooden target (I suspected that they would be wooden, because how on earth would one break a metal target?). I gave them a few encouraging words as we passed by. "You can do it you two!"

Once we got to the third floor we spread out to comb the ground. Even Luke started to join the search. I started looking around the caskets and tombstones for whatever a target looked like. Then I realized that having a scavenger hunt in a graveyard wasn't the best idea. I was getting a little creeped out with thinking about the coffins too much and what kind of Pokémon were inside. And then the story of how Luke became a Yamask in the first place didn't comfort me either. _If I see a golden coffin lying open, run!_

I saw a wavering purple light from the corner of my eye and grabbed for Len's Pokéball warily. Litwicks. If a trainer wasn't careful, they could eat your soul. I knew a little about those suckers alright.

"So…" I tried to start up pleasant conversation with Tim, "What did you do while I was out?"

Tim, who was combing the ground with amazing concentration, looked up as if I had woken him up from a dream. He feigned interest and said passively, "Nothing all that important. Just thinking about why a Pokémon would attack you, a legendary one at that." He gave his dark smirk and said, "I thought it was because you keep on cursing Landorus."

"That's not likely!" I retorted. "Just because I think Landorus and say it a couple of times doesn't give Tornadus the right to sneak-attack me!"

Tim continued to talk while searching the ground. "Sure, sure… But then again, why would Tornadus be out of line in the first place?"

I looked up from my searching and gave him a confused look. "Out of line?"

"Yeah. It would be out of line since it was captured and tamed by one of the Kwester trio. The Pokémon were said to hold to their master's word and not cause too much mischief. Do you remember which member of the trio captured Tornadus?"

I paused and glanced around the third floor for an obvious hiding place. "I thought Hess caught Tornadus…"

"Then did something happen to Hess that Tornadus no longer has to obey Hess's orders?" Tim mused.

I should stop being amazed by Tim's deeper thoughts and how he seemed more attuned with things going on, but I couldn't help it. I wasn't as good of an observer compared to him. Maybe that's why Skyla wanted us in a team…

I wanted to help along this brainstorming of why I was attacked and mentioned what I had seen on the news last night. "I did see that Hess and his siblings were in Undella Bay diving to discover the secrets of the Abyssal ruins on the news last night. Do you think something happened to Hess?"

"Maybe, or something about his ownership of the creature…" Tim murmured and held up a wooden target board the size of his head. "One down, three to go."

"_Nope, two to go!"_ Luke called out through his thoughts and lobed a larger target board in the air for us to see.

"I guess the target boards are different sizes."

"Thank you Captain Obvious." Tim said flatly.

I wasn't going to let that past me. "Hey, would it kill you to stop being so critical?" I retorted and continued to search for a similar-looking target board in my area of the cemetery tower third floor. I tried to give Tim a cold shoulder, but the silence that followed my comment was too curious. I heard no retort or anything like that. I looked back at Tim to see if he was surprised by me once again.

Tim was avoiding looking at me and was muttering quietly to Luke. If he wasn't on the other side of the circular room then I could have heard what he was talking about. I told myself to stop investigating into Tim and went back to searching.

I gave a little grin as I found a small shield-shaped target hiding in a crack between a casket and the floor. That would have taken a while to find since it was so well-hidden. But I found it! I held up the palm-sized target and announced, "Ok, I found the third. I don't see how this was so hard for Team Specs."

"Yeah, good job and all…" Tim called over to me and continued his whispering to his friend.

I crossed my arms and placed the target on the casket I had found it by._ Sure, just talk to your ghost friend while we have to be doing this challenge._ I thought sourly.

Then I thought to try to eavesdrop on the secret conversation, at least Tim's side since Luke could control who heard him or not. I mean, I still was curious even though I was holding back from prying too far. Especially when it came to Luke, a former human. I snuck a tad closer and pretended to examine a casket where a mystery target could be found. I continued to sneak closer until I could catch a little of the conversation.

"So what? I'm not concerned about it." Tim said angrily. He turned his head to see where I went and I ducked behind the casket I was inspecting.

Unfortunately, a Litwick was sitting right there. I ended up face to face with the soul-sucking creature. Before it could do anything, I eeped and pulled out Len's Pokéball. My faithful starter leapt out of the Pokéball and launched a hasty bubble beam. The candle Pokémon dodged the attack and scampered away in fear of facing Len's fury. Maybe it was one of the Litwick I had defeated not a month ago and knew who it was dealing with.

Tim looked at me sitting on the ground with Len glancing around for other threats. He gave me a haughty look and said, "You weren't trying to eavesdrop on me, were you?"

"I was looking for the last target. That Litwick just scared me…" I tried to lie, but I gave myself away with my nervousness and refusal to look him in the eye. _Landorus I was bad at lying._ But at least I didn't hear anything too important, or else I would feel guilty as well.

"Pal?" Len asked. "Palpi Palpitoad toad-toad."

"_Len's wondering why you were lying. Pokémon can smell emotions to an extent." _Luke explained and giggled a little. _"If you ask me, I'm fine with you listening. Tim's touchier than I am."_

I sighed nervously. "Oh fine, you caught me. I think it's just rude for you to completely tune me out though…"

"_Hey, I know that you are curious, do you want to see a picture of me when I was human? We can eat lunch in Twist Mountain since it's close by. That way both you and Tim will be happy. What do you say?"_

Tim huffed through his nose and answered slowly, "Fine, once this challenge is completed we can eat lunch in Twist Mountain."

I nodded as well, Len mimicking my motion after me. I sometimes surprised myself with how curious I really was. But the thought of seeing Luke as his human self was enough to motivate me. And besides, I hadn't eaten breakfast, so I was next to starving. "Sounds great! We'll have to find the last target and then destroy them while an Unfezant holds it. No problem at all!"


	34. Target Smash

**Utopia's POV**

"Sure,** no** problems. I'm glad you don't call yourself a soothsayer or else you'd never be able to make a living." Tim huffed at me.

"Well **sorry**!" I huffed right back.

Gregor and Albert had finally found their last target and had raced up to the top floor before we had. Now we only had to wait for Gregor and Albert to smash their targets. However, my notion of it being easy evaporated as soon as we watched what the Unfezant was really going to do while holding a target.

Ok, so Gregor had given the Unfezant the largest target first. The huge masked bird (since it was male) had flapped its wings, clutched the target with its talons, and had flown up into the air, as in **really **high in the air. I had to keep reminding myself that these challenges were going to get harder, but still this moving target wasn't what I'd expected.

The hero-nerd and the crazy harlequin were trying in vain to direct their bird Pokémon after the Unfezant to hit the target with an attack, but the Unfezant was faster than Gregor's Tranquill and Albert's Sigilyth. As of then, they hadn't even gotten the first and largest target smashed.

Gregor directed his Tranquill to fly in front of the larger bird to make it veer into Sigilyth's path, but the Unfezant was a nasty piece of work. It flew above Tranquill instead of veering to the side and knocked the smaller bird in the head with the wooden target. Tranquill was shaken but not seriously hurt.

Albert wasn't a whole lot of help in the target smash. He directed his Sigilyth to try to catch up with it in vain. Strangely, the harlequin didn't order long-range attacks from his Pokémon either to shatter the target or hold the Unfezant still with its psychic powers.

"They're doing it all wrong…" Tim muttered to me. "They can use non-flying-type Pokémon. Chase didn't say anything about only flying Pokémon smashing the targets. And secondly, they are attacking the Unfezant instead of the target. What use is that Sigilyth if its not using its powers correctly?"

I nodded along with him. "Do you think we should try to help them?"

He gave me a dark look and said, "We aren't going to help them, we're going to show them up!" before I could fight back, he walked towards Team Specs and said, "If you can't get that target smashed within five minutes, I think our team should have a shot at it."

Gregor looked at Tim and sighed. "Ok, fine… this is more difficult than it looks though…"

"Take a shot at it right now if you want." Albert agreed. "There seems to be no way for this to work."

I face-palmed but joined Tim at the place Gregor and Albert were standing to direct their Pokémon. They called their Pokémon back to their side to let us have a go at the target smash. The Unfezant noticed the withdrawal of Tranquill and Sigilyth and flew back down to the tower top. The bird set the target down and waited for our target. Gregor and Albert's targets were decorated with red paint while ours were blue paint. Maybe the color of the target mattered?

Tim took out the largest target of our collection and the large masked bird took to the air just like before. Tim wasn't going to relax, he called out his two floating Pokémon and looked at me. "Call out Vullaby and Stunfisk."

"Sure, what's the plan?" I asked as I called the desired Pokémon out.

"Cryogonal and Stunfisk will be distractions since they are threatening types. I'll call on them as a plan B. Until then, have Vullaby fly around and tell it to ready a fury attack at the target board. The target is the only thing we care about." He said confidently. He leered at Albert and his Sigilyth, "Then my Sigilyth will demonstrate the power it was **born** to have."

Albert and his Pokémon got a little ticked at that statement but nothing more.

I rolled my eyes at Tim's efforts to be as unfriendly as possible. I patted my vulture Pokémon on the head and said, "Ok, I need you to use a fury attack on the target the Unfezant is holding up there."

"Vull…" Pebbles squawked disbelievingly.

"I know that you're much slower than that Pokémon but Tim has a plan of some sort. He can make this work. I trust his strategy. No go up there and make me proud." I was actually not planning on getting Pebble's cooperation so quickly, but she fluttered her small wings and took to the sky anyways.

Tim had a determined look on his face as he called out, "Sigilyth! Use miracle eye!"

I think I knew that move, it makes an evasive opponent easier to hit. I called out happily at that fact. Tim knew which moves to teach a Pokémon!

The Unfezant seemed to slow a little from the attack, but continued to fly around in a circle of sorts. Vullaby was still no match for the bigger bird's speed, but that wasn't stopping her from flying closer.

Tim called out another command. "Psybeam it. Angle it towards Pebbles!"

Amazingly Siggy did just that. The avianoid Pokémon flapped its fragile wings and aimed a powerful psybeam at the Unfezant. The beam of psychic energy hit the bird in a way that sent it sprawling towards the already oncoming vulture. Pebbles didn't hesitate to fury attack the target in her opponent's claws. The target shattered under her fierce pecks, sending small bits of the painted wood raining down. Thankfully no one was under the barrage.

The Tranquil gripped onto a tiny fragment of the target board and directed its flight over to a small round table. It set the fragment down and flapped back to where it had been waiting before. I guess there was some sort of ritual there of some sorts, but I was just glad to have gotten a target smashed after watching Gregor and his teammate fail.

I cheered and jumped in the air. I offered a high-five to Tim but he declined. He looked happy that the plan worked out but was still his stubborn self. I high-fived Luke instead since the ghost was more keen to celebrating.

Gregor smiled and said, "Well, I guess your teamwork training this morning wasn't for loss. Great job!"

"Thanks Pidove-partner." I beamed back. "So do you want us to complete our set of four or do you want to try your hand at it?"

Tim gave me a warning glance, but waited for the hero-nerd to reply.

Gregor waved us on modestly. "You can complete the run. You two are on a role."

"And we can get some pointers from watching you two work." Albert chimed in with a grin.

It was then that I remembered that Albert had mentioned that I should watch out for flying away in the wind. Did he have something to do with that Tornadus encounter? Maybe he could see the future like Jamie said she could? Or worse, had he planned it? I ventured to ask him anyways. "Hey, Albert. I was just wondering why you said for me to be careful and not to get blown away earlier."

The harlequin shrugged. "You're the lightest here of all of us. I would think that you would be blown away first. Thank goodness that the wind has died down though."

Tim glared from the corner of his eye. I said casually, "because funny thing is that I **was** blown away. That windstorm was caused by Tornadus and it blew me into a whirlwind earlier."

Gregor's eyes bulged and Albert's jaw dropped.

"You saw a legendary Pokémon? It attacked you?" The hero-nerd gaped.

"That's really a strange coincidence. I promise you that I had nothing to do with that encounter!" Albert held up his hands. "How'd you defeat that Pokémon then? It's very powerful after all…"

There was something off about Albert's words, as if he was almost hiding something. I couldn't place it (as normal for me) but I kept my doubts. Tim seemed to be thinking the same thing about the strangeness of Albert's statement. I answered casually, "Yeah, it attacked me. Thankfully my partner helped me out. His Yamask friend Luke took care of Tornadus easily. He put it…" I blanked. Did Luke say where or what happened to the Pokémon?"

"Tornadus was dumped around Nuvema town, far away and out of mind." Tim added with little emotion in his words. He gave Albert a cold stare as if asking for answers.

"I'm glad that you're ok then." Gregor sighed slightly. "I can't believe that you'd be randomly attacked by a powerful cyclone Pokémon…"

"That is out of the ordinary…" Albert admitted and flinched under Tim's stare. "What? I promise that I didn't have anything to do with Tornadus!" He defended himself.

The black-haired partner of mine turned back to the Unfezant. "Fine, let's get this challenge over with." He selected the smallest target next and placed it before the large pheasant Pokémon. He gave me a stern look and explained, "We should try the hardest one to hit next. I have an idea of how to make this work for us."

I nodded and looked at my Pokémon out and waiting. Len was still by my side to fight any Litwicks that came our way, Pebbles was preening herself for a job well done, and Ole was waiting patiently by Cryogonal being his normal creeper-fish self. Pebbles and Ole would be great assets to destroy the target. And paired with Tim's strategy, I could feel confident about winning. That was just how I was; I already won or lost a match at first glance.

Before I knew it the Unfezant was in the air again, but this time holding the target in its beak and flying faster and in a different pattern than before. I bit my lip and started to try to figure out how to get at it. It was holding the smallest target so this one was the hardest.

Tim watched the bird fly for a minute before directing his Pokémon. "Sigilyth, Cryogonal, take Stunfisk into the air and try to make it panic." He nodded to me. "Vullaby will smash the target again, my Pokémon will try to surround it then Vullaby strikes."

I nodded. "Sounds good." I looked at Pebbles and gave her instructions on where the target was this time. The vulture baby Pokémon chirped in agreement and started flying into the air after Siggy and Cryogonal who was carrying Ole with its ice crystals.

With four Pokémon in the air, the Unfezant seemed a little flustered. It continued to fly around in circles of its choosing and ignored the other Pokémon.

Tim directed his Pokémon to fly in the way of the Unfezant and ordered, "Sigilyth, miracle eye again, catch Stunfisk. Cryogonal, use bind!" Cryogonal tossed my Stunfisk in the air to be able to use bind.

"Pebbles, fury attack on the target!" I yelled, the adrenaline rushing through me. This was so exciting!

This time our plan didn't work out as flawlessly as we hoped. The Unfezant was on to the Vullaby being the main target smasher. The large bird climbed up into the air suddenly, giving Cryogonal nothing to grab at and Pebbles was too slow to pursue the target-holding bird. At least Siggy caught Ole midair, or else it would have been a complete failure, not to mention that Ole would become flatter than he already was!

"Damn…" Tim whispered.

"Pebbles, try to flatter it!" I called up to my Pokémon. "We need it confused!"

My partner gave me a nod, which was a good sign. It meant that now I could take a stab at the Pokémon directing.

"Cryogonal, try to chase it lower to the ground, you two Siggy. First priority is to flatter it and then strike when its confused." I smiled as Tim's Pokémon obeyed me. It felt weird to direct someone else's Pokémon, but they understood that we were a team and I shared authority with Tim over them.

Cryogonal flew up after the bird and tried to direct it back down. Unfezant on the other hand continued to climb up into the grey sky. In a matter of moments Unfezant and Cryogonal were gone in the clouds. I couldn't see anything through the sky.

"Um, ok, what next…?" I muttered to Tim.

"Luke, tell Cryogonal that it has the advantage in a cloud. It can smash the target." Tim said with a small grin. I looked at me and explained, "Cryogonals are snowflake-like Pokémon. They feel at home in clouds."

My spirits rose again. Thanks to Luke's telepathy we could communicate with Cryogonal even when it was up that high. "Great!"

"You two certainly are prepared…" Gregor admitted behind us. "You seem ready for anything."

"We only practiced an hour this morning, so we're still a little off. But thanks." I thanked him. It was true though, Tim and I still worked as a pretty awesome team. I still don't know how it worked since we still hated each other and made things difficult for each other. Maybe Pokémon battling can unite even the harshest of enemies…

I heard a Pokémon call and saw Unfezant diving back down to the ground with Cryogonal floating lazily after. I looked at Luke and said, "Did it work?"

Luke the Yamask nodded. "Cryogonal said that the target has been smashed."

"Yes! Halfway there!" I cheered.

The Unfezant landed on the table once again and placed a small shard of wood down. I was curious to know if it was making some shape with the shards or why it was bothering to even do it. It landed on the ground and I ran up to get one of the medium targets. I wanted to have the honor of giving the target to the bird this time.

The bird took to the air once more (target in talons once again), not showing any sign of tiring from our previous attacks. Once again it was flying in a different manner than the other previous times, this time taking to diving and climbing randomly. I wondered if the Unfezant was trained to fly different ways while holding different targets.

"The Unfezant is learning. By the time we get to target number four it will be able to predict our general strategy. Either we use a surprise strategy now or save it for the last one." Tim observed.

"Let's do the surprise one now so that it won't know what to expect for the last one." I paused and asked, "So… what is a surprise strategy?"

"Something we haven't tried yet." Tim said almost apologetically. "I don't plan out surprise strategies as well. It's called improvising."

I gave him a weird look to let him know that his tone was just odd. He was not the type I figured to be apologetic **ever**. I shrugged and started to brainstorm with him while watching the new path Unfezant was taking. "So, should I somehow get Sundazzle in the picture? It wouldn't expect a little fire bug to do anything. She can use a string-shot attack to tie it up if need be… And maybe Len could help too, even though he's a ground type. That would be unexpected. Or Luke could slap his mask on the bird."

"Luke's mask is only for emergencies." Tim said firmly. "But using non-flying Pokémon would be a good surprise. Just how do we get the Pokémon close to Unfezant? Maybe your Larvesta might be able to do something."

I suddenly got a strange picture of Sundazzle lassoing Ole and throwing the creeper-fish at Unfezant. I giggled and muttered, "She could throw Ole around with her silk."

"Unorthodox but… I kind of like it."

"What? I wasn't being serious…" I raised my eyebrows at Tim. Ok, now either I'm going crazy and thinking Tim's got positive emotions, or he's snapped and is going crazy. Since I was traumatized by a Tornadus, I'm thinking that I was the one at fault.

"It could work. Siggy, Cryogonal, come back down so I can talk to you. You too Vullaby." Tim instructed the Pokémon.

"You've lost it…" I muttered. "Or maybe I'm still asleep and my mind just hiccupped."

Luke hovered by me and thought, _"Improvising might seem a little strange, but it could work. After all, Tim's the best at strategy, but my training style is… or I mean __**was**__, improvising. Tim's trying a hand at my style."_

"Wait, you have a training style? But I thought you di-" I stopped talking so loud for fear of ruining Luke's secret for Gregor and Albert. I said in a quieter voice, "I thought you died before you could be a Pokémon trainer…"

"_I did. I just happened to have a dad who loved training and took me into the battling world a little early. Don't tell anyone that I was an under-aged Pokémon trainer though."_ The little ghost winked playfully.

I frowned and looked at Tim trying to throw together a plan of action with the Pokémon. _Why was he trying his hand at Luke's style of fighting? Why now?_

"I need Sundazzle out to make sure she understands the plan… as long as she doesn't fry me." Tim told me.

"Oh, right." I fumbled with my last full Pokéball and called out the fire-bug. As expected, she gave Tim a queer look that a bug wouldn't usually have. Almost like a fearsome look that a generally more intimidating Pokémon would have. "Be nice, Sundazzle. You remember our training earlier today? Work together."

The daughter of the sun ignored me and crawled forward and waited patiently to hear what Tim had to say. I joined the assembled crowd of Pokémon as well to figure out how I could help out with this improve. Still, I don't understand why he's doing a different style of fighting other than to confuse the Unfezant.

"Ok, Luke," Tim called out Archen for the ghost to see. Now every single one of our Pokémon were out and waiting for orders. "Here are our assets, what do you figure?"

"_I'm not a trainer anymore, so don't ask me… though, I would try to get Siggy to fly with Sundazzle and Ole on his head and then send out Cryogonal and Pebbles to distract it since they already smashed a target. I don't know if Archen or Len can help unless they could quickly strike the fourth target as Unfezant is taking off."_ Luke paused and thought nervously, _"But I'm not a trainer anymore… and under-aged one at that…"_

"Ok, we've got distraction and Ole going in for the hit." Tim nodded. He met my eyes and said, "You have to bluff. Tell yourself that Pebbles and Cryogonal are the prime course of getting that target. We have to fake Unfezant out. Can you act?"

"I think… though I haven't been in any school plays before…"

"I'll take that as a 'yes' because you have to either way." He said bluntly. That was more of the Tim I knew. He turned to the Pokémon and nodded. "You know what to do. If things don't work, improvise. I'm sure that you Pokémon can figure on something."

"Vullaby."

"Archen."

"Palpi."

"Si-i-ig."

"Lar."

"Cryo cryo."

"Stu-u-u-u-u-u-u-un."

"Why are you such a creeper, Ole?" I moaned.


	35. Archen's Fall and DragonVow's Promise

**Utopia's POV**

"Vullaby-I-mean-Pebbles! Yes, Pebbles! Try to get closer to that target, use fury attack!" I called out. Ugh, hearing Tim say 'Vullaby' made me want to say it as well even though I clearly nicknamed her Pebbles.

Anyways, I was trying my best to act, though I had no experience in it. I had to pretend that Vullaby was the key to smashing our third target when in actuality Sundazzle, Ole, and Siggy were supposed to pull off the final hit. And secondly, Tim and I were improvising, which meant I was allowed to bumble around in my own incompetence freely.

Then it hit me. _I know why I work so well with Tim. He gives me a plan to work with. _I don't come up with plans very well, demonstrated by my attempts to catch a Pidove all those days ago. But improvising wasn't helping me very much, though I think the Unfezant felt that our feint was going to be normal. After all, Siggy and Ole had done very little so far in this target smash.

Unfezant dived sharply and twirled in the air to splendidly dodge my awkwardly flying vulture. How gracefully could a diaper-wearing Vullaby with tiny little wings fly in the first place? Cryogonal floated closer to see if it had a shot as well at the target, but Unfezant was far too fast. It (or I should say 'he' since he did have a red mask and green underbelly to indicate his gender) climbed upwards and twirled again, clearly enjoying itself and mocking our attempts.

"Now?" I asked softly.

"Keep stalling and trying your hardest. I'll give Siggy the signal." Tim answered me in an equal tone.

I sighed and directed Pebbles again, "Don't give up! Try to get in front of it." _Sure, I'll go along with your plan, Tim. Just as long as we can get through the trainers challenges I'll be fine._

I started spacing out at the random thought of what Luke had mentioned before he found the final target. We would eat lunch in Twist Mountain and Luke mentioned something about seeing what he looked like when he was as a human. I could hardly wait or even guess what he could have looked like. I simply knew him as a Yamask. And maybe if they had pictures of Luke, I might even sneak a peek of Tim's real hair color was. _I still think it would be hilarious if he was a natural blonde._

What's more, pictures gave stories to talk about. My curiosity could be satisfied a little more about those two. And yet, it felt like I was becoming friends with the duo, even though Tim was still against any sort of friendship. I had to admit, despite my hate for him, he could be tolerable. And since I was the only person he could stand in this competition, I think my slight friendship was reciprocated.

"You're spacing again." Tim observed flatly.

I fought the blush threatening to creep over my cheeks. "Sorry…" I mumbled and tried to focus on the task at hand. I didn't like moments when people you are thinking about talks to you to interrupt the thoughts. It's just kind of awkward.

"Just keep up the façade for the Unfezant. Once the third target is smashed, then Len and Archen will try to smash the fourth target when Unfezant first grabs it." He said with the same amount of emotion as before.

I glanced back at Gregor and Albert quickly to see if they were still watching and taking notes. They were indeed. I smiled at the hero-nerd and went back to calling out orders to Pebbles. But strangely enough, Pebbles was doing well enough on her own. Of course, leave it to a bumbling trainer like me to have a better strategy when my Pokémon were fighting in their own style.

Pebbles gave a war cry and dived at Unfezant, unleashing a fury I had not seen before. For a second she looked like she was actually built for flight. She zoomed by and almost hit the target, which set the large pheasant Pokémon into a panic. Unfezant dived close to the ground, hoping to lose the Vullaby and her little temper.

Cryogonal got in the way of the bird and made it veer haphazardly. Pebbles squawked loudly and almost appreciatively. _Flatter!_ The Unfezant puffed out its breast in pride, but wobbled in its flight, indicating confusion.

"Great job Pebbles!" I cheered. "Now try to strike the target!"

"Siggy." Tim waved his hand and the painting-like Pokémon took to the sky with Sundazzle and Ole on his head. The black-haired guy nodded to me. "Good work on the flatter, now hitting it will be much easier."

"Thank the little vulture yourself; she's fighting in her own way." I said with a shrug. I stared at the fight again, the intensity was building up and my heart raced.

Vullaby was emboldened and flapped forward at the confused Proud Pokémon. Unfezant was aware of Pebbles enough to flutter out of the strike. Pebbles turned around and struck the Unfezant hard in the wing. This surprised me since she wanted to smash the target. Then again, Vullabies weren't the friendliest Pokémon in Unova.

Unfezant squawked in pain and wheeled around, just in time to bump into Siggy and his two Pokémon passengers. Sundazzle (instead of using her string shot to use Ole as a bungee jumper) spat out a ball of flame and scored a perfect hit on the third target.

The Unfezant, being confused and all, didn't realize that his target had been smashed right away and flew up to dodge the possible onslaught of Pokémon attacks. After a little flying and no resistance, Unfezant cleared his head and looked down to the slightly smoldering piece of wood that used to be a target. He corrected his path and set the third shard down on the table.

Unfezant once again went back to its designated place, but not before eating a berry from a hidden stack of Oran berries in the corner by the five tables.

Tim nodded to me and walked towards the bird Pokémon slowly, holding out the last target. I nodded to Len and Archen to get ready for the surprise attack. Len nodded back to me, the bumps on his head sending off calming vibrations through the air. After all of our nodding, I think we were ready for the sneak-attack… maybe…

Tim placed the last target before the Unfezant and backed up. The next events seemed to unfold in slow motion. Unfezant grasped the target in its talons right as Len spat out a tirade of bubbles and Archen rushed forward for a pluck attack.

The bird was surprised at the rush of Pokémon and panicked to get into the air. Len's bubbles mainly missed, but one or two made impact with the board, but it didn't shatter. Archen bravely launched itself in the air to try to pluck the target out of Unfezant's claws, but he only managed to scrape it.  
>I gave a frustrated sigh at the failed plot.<p>

But Archen wasn't giving up yet. He used acrobatics to try to fly up to the Pokémon. He succeeded to grasp the edge of the target with his claws and teeth. Archen was taken up high into the sky, clinging for its life.

"ARCHEN!" Tim yelled in a panic. He swore loudly and gave me an almost panicked look. "He can't fly! What if he falls?" He looked up in the sky again and swore louder. "Damn! Siggy, drop your passengers off and catch up with Archen. Try to help Archen too, Cryogonal!"

I gulped and looked to the sky. This time Unfezant was flying higher than usual, almost going into the clouds again. If Archen fell there would no way he could use Acrobatics to help his landing! He was too far up. "Pebbles, you help Archen in any way that you can!" I tried to offer help as well, even though Archen probably weighted more than Pebbles.

Unfezant wavered in his flight slightly and I gasped. Any false move on Archen's part would be the end of him.

"ARCHEN! Hold on!" Tim called up as loudly as he could.

The fossil bird didn't hear Tim. As proof of that, a small speck started to fall from the Unfezant's grip. I gasped as I could barely make out the shape of Archen and the target plummeting back down to earth. "No…" I whispered. This couldn't be happening. Tim's Pokémon can't die, not now! Siggy and Cryogonal and Pebbles were still too far away to do anything for the fossil bird!

I closed my eyes. I couldn't bear watching any longer. My heart sunk to the bottom of my feet as the reality started to take hold. Then I heard a strange sound, like a shriek of an unknown Pokémon. I peeked my eyes open and stared in amazement.

The form of Archen seemed to have changed while I hid my eyes. Now Archen was much bigger and seemed to have larger wings. The fossil bird gave a powerful screech and opened his wings wide. His descent slowed incredibly and he began to glide down. As an added flair, Archen used his talons to toss the stolen target in the air and instantly destroyed it with a powerful dragon breath attack.

Unfezant dived for the shards of the target to stay true to its mission.

The fossil bird was immensely pleased with itself and glided back to the top of Celestial tower. The enlarged fossil bird fluttered up to Tim and me and squawked ever so happily. "Arche archeops ar."

I laughed in joy at the amazing feat Archen/Archeops had done. He had snatched the target from Unfezant and evolved just in time to save himself from being dashed on the ground. That was incredible timing for an evolution, especially since Archeops could fly! I stared in awe and looked at Tim. I was about to congratulate him for his brave Pokémon, but I stopped short of saying anything.

Tim stared at his evolved Pokémon in awe and pride; a true, genuine smile splayed across his face. His mouth opened in amazement and he held out his hand for the larger form of Archen to nuzzle. Tim was a complete loss for words.

He patted the Archeops's head and said ever so softly, "Archeops…"

"_Archeops was Tim's first Pokémon he ever owned, and is the only one of his team that can (or will be allowed to) evolve."_ Luke thought to me. _"This is a special moment for him."_

I agreed with the little ghost. It was strange and yet wonderful to see Tim so happy. _This guy has positive emotions. He is actually human. And in our first challenge together I get to see that_. I smiled and almost felt a tear form at my eye.

Tim patted the fossil bird's head affectionately. "Archeops… I'm glad you were ready to evolve, or else that would have been really, really stupid of you."

"Fez!" The Unfezant chirped and waddled to the bell at the head of the tower.

_That's right, we're supposed to ring the bell once we are done!_ I didn't want to interrupt Tim, so followed the bird up to the bell, Len waddling at my heels. I grinned at my Palpitoad and placed my hands on the cold, metal bell.

I pushed forward with all my might and it rang a deep and resonating note. It swung back my way like a pendulum and gave a second, strangely higher sound. _Weren't bells supposed to have only one note per bell?_ It swung back a second time, giving a slightly varied tune, almost like each new note was higher than the other in a set of three. The bell stopped ringing after the sixth chime, leaving me and Len staring in wonder at the strange bell.

"Palpi pla toad…"

Gregor cheered and called to me, "Great job, Utopia! You did great! See you at the next challenge maybe."

I sent a beaming smile back. "Ok! Take care of yourself then!"

I glanced at Tim and the rest of our Pokémon all waiting in a huddle. Everyone looked happy and excited, even Tim. I walked back to the group and held out my Pokéballs. "Good work you guys. I'll return you quick until we get lunch." Then all four of my Pokémon were nothing more than red energy in a sphere.

Tim stared at me a little before turning back to Archeops. "I bet you want to stay out." He said quietly and returned Sigilyth and Cryogonal to their respective great and dusk balls. He headed for the stairs without another word.

Archeops took to the sky to try out his ability of flying for the first time in his life while Luke hovered by me again to think to me, _"That tune that the bell played… it was very interesting. I should say that the bell is a special kind of bell that reflects a person's character and soothes the ghosts of the tower."_

"Wait, it reflects my character? What did it say about me?"

"_I don't know, I don't understand 'bell'."_ Luke giggled. _"But come on, we can go eat lunch now! Then I can show you a picture of me!"_

…

After a quick break at the restroom and a small hike, I stood with Tim, Luke, and Archeops at the base of Twist Mountain. The size of it was simply enormous! It almost seemed taller than the Celestial Tower and any of Castelia's skyscrapers. I gulped at the sight of the steep and winding stair case. That didn't look like fun…

"Welcome to Twist Mountain." Tim said proudly. "I know this place better than any other place in this entire region. I happen to know a great spot to eat as well." He nodded to the stairs and said, "After you."

"Can't I fly up on Archeops or Siggy or something?" I mumbled. "That looks ridiculously hard to climb."

Tim gave me a slightly teasing look and said, "It's not that bad. Come on, are you not in shape?" he sighed and nodded the Archeops while taking the stairs himself. I stared in amazement at how fast he could run up such steep steps.

Archeops nudged me in the back and I jumped. "Ar-arche." He squawked and crouched down for me to ride on his back.

"Oh, thanks." I got on the feathered back of the fossil bird (that five days ago had used acrobatics on me) to get up to the entrance of the cave. It still was strange how in five days things had changed so much. Or maybe I was just a slow learner.

Archeops flapped its great wings, took a running start, and then climbed up into the air. He was strong enough to carry me and support his own weight as well, which was commendable for a newly evolved Pokémon. The fossil bird landed on the ledge by the mouth of the cave just as Tim made it to the top. As far as I could tell, he wasn't at all tired.

Tim nodded to Archeops again and led the way inside the gloomy interior without any more words. His strange quietness was bugging me, and he wasn't taking every chance he could to tease me or make me feel dumb or incompetent. Perhaps Archen evolving into Archeops was really important to him, almost life-changing. But how?

I followed him into the gloom, flanked by Archeops and Luke. We only walked a short time in the gloom before re-emerging onto a rickety wooden bridge built into the side of the mountain. I remembered this place as well from my travels, but the creaking wood and the long fall below still made me nervous. After all, I wasn't so keen on falling since Tornadus's whirlwind of perpetual falling.

Tim pointed to the lowest point in the interior of Twist and said, "That little house down there belongs to my dad's team of archeologists. We can eat there with no problem." He seemed so happy, which was kind of creepy for me. "I don't think many people will be there just in case of snow storms. The snow can pile up all the way to that ridge where the bridge broke over there." He pointed to the far side of the hollow mountain to a point where the bridge was broken.

"That's parallel with us!" I gaped. "The snow can get that high?"

He nodded and pulled out Siggy's great ball. "It'll be easier to fly instead of walking. That way we don't have to bump into any Boldores or Gurdurrs." Siggy emerged from the Pokéball and Tim grabbed on his tail-like thing. Siggy climbed up into the air before descending. "Archeops can take you." He said as he descended into the depths of Twist Mountain.

I got on Archeops again and flew down to the little house. Once both I and Tim were on the ground, Tim returned Siggy again and headed toward the door of the house. He knocked and waited while frowning. After a while of waiting, he opened the door and sighed in relief. "Good, no one is here. It would be a chore to explain why I was here."

I inspected the house. There were two chairs, two long tables, a bookshelf and a set of four beds in the far end of the one-room house. "Do the archeologists sleep here?" I asked.

"If they can't get away from a discovery then yes. My dad and I spent a few days here while looking for fossils…" he trailed off in a sort of happy memory. "That's when we found Archen… I guess it's almost fitting for us to come here, at least for a little…"

"You're even creepier now than you were in Chargestone…" I said warily.

Tim gave me his signature bored look. "You don't understand what it feels like to have a home like this. Twist Mountain is my home, it's who I am. What do you have, fear of Kyurem and Anville's trains?"

I glared at him and shouted, "Hey! That's low!" But what did I really call home? I lived in fear in Lacunosa and in silence in Anville. What did I love and connect with like Tim did? _My Palpitoad I guess…_ I always felt comforted if he was around. 'Home' traveled with my starter Pokémon… I had nothing to say in retaliation to Tim's statement. I felt my heart sink into my despair of not knowing what I wanted to be or what my skills were. I lowered my head to hide any oncoming tears. I couldn't cry in front of Tim like that!

There was a pause interrupted by a soft whisper, "Sorry, that was out of line."

"You bet it was!" I tried to hide my emotion, but my throat closed up so that I sounded the same way I felt. I took in a few deep breaths and tried to calm myself. _Think of happier things. We won our first challenge with little problems. Archen evolved and I might be able to ask more about Luke's past human self. _

I felt a little better and looked up from the floor. Tim was still in his same spot, avoiding my gaze. Luke was hovering in the house and remained silent, along with Archeops, who was staying outside. Tim refused to look at me. He seemed to be spacing out on something, kind of like me.

"Well, I'm hungry, so shouldn't we get something to eat?" I tried to change the subject. I didn't want to talk about my uncertainty at all, so I wanted him to forget that it ever happened. More than likely he wasn't, but I could always hope. I started looking around and said, "Do you store food in here?"

Tim closed his eyes and said, "There's some non-perishable stuff in my pack… But… just a question, how terrified of Kyurem are you?"

I frowned and said in a slightly quaking voice, "I don't want to talk about Kyurem…"

"We are Team DragonVow, we have things we need to get over." He said firmly while his eyes were still closed. "We have fears of things that seem too great and out of our control. I'm just wondering if our fears are mutual."

"You fear something? What is it, Larvestas?" I tried to tease him of change his mood. What in Landorus's name was up with him?

He opened his dark, piercing eyes and said, "I don't want to complete my vow because I'm afraid of the consequences of failing. I can only assume that we've had both of our fears since we were young. That makes it even more unnerving for us to break our fears."

"Why are you saying this? Why can't you just drop it? I don't want to talk about it!"

"Because our fears are linked together; whether your soothsaying friend had anything to say about it or if it's just dumb luck. But if I want to complete my vow you have to help, and I will help you." He said with a strange, serious glint in his eye.

"I don't want to be helped. I'm fine with avoiding dragons all of my life!" I felt my emotions raging, tearing at my thoughts and making me want to run away or break down and cry hysterically. I couldn't bear the thought of getting over a fear of dragons; it was what I had always known. I didn't want to let it go. And how in Landorus's name did that have anything to do with his vague vow?

"Kyurem will appear."

I felt my heart freeze for a second. My face paled and I muttered, "What? How do you…?" he couldn't be telling the truth. Kyurem would not and could not come anywhere close to me!

"_Tim, she's not looking so good. She is still recovering…"_ Luke tried to stop Tim from persisting in his crazy talk. However, the guy didn't listen.

"Jamie foretold it. Don't you remember when she gave you her Xtransceiver number? She said that you should call her when you worst fear reared its face. And if Kyurem shows up in some fashion, how will you cope?" He glared at me to emphasize his seriousness. "There's something going on that we don't know about, and Tornadus showing up can only be a bad omen."

No… no, Kyurem couldn't be… it couldn't be coming out of giant chasm… it stayed there. It would never leave its place. Jamie had to be saying something else. She couldn't have said that Kyurem was going to appear to me. "Jamie had to be wrong…" I choked.

"Fine, if she is wrong then forget about what I said. But how often is she wrong?" He said a little more gently.

"I don't know…" She did read my tea leaves. That was strange and slightly unbelievable. She had said something about Twist Mountain or just a mountain in general. I certainly haven't climbed any mountains lately; I just flew over them on Archeops not too long ago. She said I had a mountain to climb…

"I understand fear. I need your help, Utopia."

I frowned at him. "Since when did you need my help? Last I checked you were the leader of this group. You come up with strategies and I help. I don't offer a whole lot battle-wise, or information-wise. What can I do?" The emptiness returned again and my face twitched with withheld emotion.

"I need your friendship."

I gave a short laugh. "That's a joke, right? You're so anti-friend and now you come to me (after all that you've done to push me away and make me hate you)… now you want to be friends?" I couldn't believe this guy. I simply could not believe him!

He marched closer to me and said with a serious tone, "My vow is to stop my killing touch from hurting my friends. And for that to work I need a friend that I can save from my killing touch! There! Your mystery is solved!" he crossed his arms and continued darkly, "And friendship from you means that I might put your life on the line; it's no light-hearted matter."

"Wait, you still think you have that killing touch?" I frowned, trying to take in all of what he was saying and implying.

"Yes, everyone that I have had a friendship with has **died**. I want to put an end to it by making a friend that I can save."

"So you want me dead?"

"That's what I do **not** want! Can't you understand that no one ever wants to lose a friend?" he looked at Luke and let some of his own emotions be heard in his voice, "I couldn't save Luke… I couldn't do anything in my power to save him. But next time, and next friend, I promised that I will stop the inevitable."

My pity of Luke's demise rose again, and my head felt like a twirling mass of confusion. "I need to think about this…" I muttered and marched out of the door and past Archeops.

I mean, if I agreed to be Tim's friend of sorts (which still seemed completely foreign to me) then I'd be at risk of dying. _Was that worth my life? Could I trust Tim with my life?_ I stumbled around the bottom of Twist and decided to think in a small cave not too far away. _This will be a nice place to think…_


	36. Look At This Photograph

**A/N: The tune I chose for Utopia's bell chime last chapter was the Legend of Zelda's Song of Storms. I don't know why, but it is :) **

**Why do I always write more when I have lots of homework I should be doing? Si-i-i-i-igh… And once again, I do not own Pokémon, just my OCs.**

**Utopia's POV**

I sat down in the cool cave and tried to calm and sort my thoughts. It wasn't easy with the whole fear of Kyurem and dying, I'll tell you that! And so much for a nice lunch with Luke and Tim. I had pictured sitting on a quilt and eating sandwiches while laughing at photos. But no, Tim had to ask about Kyurem and push to try to help my fear.

I still couldn't believe that after all this he wanted to be friends with me. And friendship meant that I was in danger of death! **Death!** What kind of friend was that?

I stopped myself and thought of Tim and Luke instead. They were good friends. Even though Luke had died they still were like brothers to each other. And as nice as that was, I didn't know why he had changed his mind to try to be nice. _Was it because he was so happy that Archen evolved?_

_No, he said that I needed to help him._ I reminded myself. _He needs my help to try to stop his killing touch if that even existed_. I gulped as I remembered the Pidove he had caught and shuddered. Then my imagination of what it might've looked like for Luke to die at the jaws of a Cofagrigus. _That could be me if I agree to this stupid idea…_

_And what's worse, he thinks he can help me in return! I fear dragons, so lay off! I don't want to change! _I tucked my knees to my chest and set my chin on them. _And his talking of Kyurem is just to get me to consider his friendship. But why me of all people?_

DragonVow… there was a reason Tim had chosen that name and only now could I see it. He had a goal, a curse he thought himself to have and to break. And I was terrified of dragons, so he figured that it could be remedied. Had he planned this since we became partners? Since when did he start thinking of me as a friend instead of the enemy? I groaned as I thought back to Luke and Tim in the forest at the large tree. Luke had said something about me becoming Tim's friend! Back then I didn't know that being a friend would mean my life was at stake.

So I was left with the decision: become Tim's friend at the risk of my life, or not be his friend and everything goes back to normal? But did I want everything to be back to normal? Tim was right when he said that I pretty much had no deep connection to a home of sorts. For crying out loud, I didn't even get an answer from my own parents about our heritage! I didn't know if I had any talents and I was left wondering what to do with my life. That was my normal. One year of training and three badges later nothing had changed.

Strangely, I felt my will leaning toward the change. I wanted to get out of my rut in life and find myself. That what Jamie had said (along with her vague prediction of a possible Kyurem); to find myself in this competition. I wanted to! But still, the risk of me dying wasn't fun to think about. _Why couldn't Malcolm be my partner instead of Tim?_ I thought. _He'd be much more friendly and helpful to help me find myself. Tim's just… Tim. And Malcolm's way I wouldn't have to face death in order to change._

"Tamato or Pidove-noodle soup?"

I jumped at the sound of a voice interrupting my thoughts. Of course I knew who it was, who else would be there? I gave Tim a weary look. Words couldn't express my confusion, fears, and downright dislike of his strategy for DragonVow.

The black-haired guy shrugged and placed the bowl of Pidove-noddle soup by my feet and took the tamato berry soup for himself. He sat down on the cave wall opposite of me and began to eat calmly.

I stared at the steaming soup and said flatly, "Did you poison it?"

Tim gave me a 'you can't be serious' look. "Sorry for trying." He said with a hint of sarcasm.

"I didn't say that I wanted to be your friend yet." I mumbled defensively even though the smell of that soup was making my stomach rumble to demand a taste. _Oh that kid was clever!_ _Making soup and acting all friendly!_ I tore my gaze away from the soup and asked, "Ok, so if you want to be friends so badly, then why did you attack me on the first day of the challenge and flip me off? If you ask me that's not the best way to start a friendship."

Tim's look fell a little bit. "Oh yeah…" He set down his tamato soup and put his hand to his chin. "Let me put it this way, I was defensive of your Larvesta torching my shirt so naturally I wanted to show you up. Then when you refused to fight I kept on going, expecting you to give in. And the flipping off part was…" he smirked a little, "Well you did say you wanted a 'bird'."

"You made a rude hand gesture to me, it's not a joke." I huffed angrily.

"Sorry then. I shouldn't have done that." He said with that strange tone, it almost sounded like he was **really** sorry.

I sighed and picked up the soup. It was so yummy smelling, and looking to boot! I gave Tim an uneasy glance and started to eat the soup with the spoon he had provided. It turned out to be as good as it smelled and looked. My starving stomach was very happy for the food! I paused from eating the soup and asked, "So, you made this?"

"Soup in a can warmed up, nothing much."

The conversation stilled until I was finished with the soup. I set the bowl down and wiped at my mouth. "Thanks for the soup then…" I said casually. I still was apprehensive to accepting Tim's friendliness so readily. And it was still creepy to see Tim happy, friendly, or even apologetic.

Luke floated in to join us he held a few photos in his hand and thought, "_Ok, so do you want to see what I looked like when I was a human, Utopia?"_

Tim's eyes snapped open wide. "Hey, did you steal those from my pack? Which ones are they?"

"What? Are you afraid of an embarrassing one?" I snickered.

Luke giggled and quickly handed me the pictures before Tim could censor which ones I was allowed to see.

I grasped the photos and glimpsed at the top one. I forgot all ideas of trying to protect the photos at the sight of the first one. It was a baby picture of a curly-black haired boy with an enormous grin on his face. He was wearing a cute little long-sleeved and striped shirt with light green overalls. "Ooh! That's so cute!" I smiled widely. I looked at the little ghost and asked, "That's you as a toddler?"

Luke nodded with a hint of blush on his face. _"Yeah, that's me."_

"Let me see." Tim said and sat down beside me to see the pictures. He nodded. "That's your family's favorite toddler picture."

"_Of course! That's why they gave you one for yourself. They made so many copies of it. There's one hanging on the wall at home still I think."_

I flinched at Tim sitting by me, and then I turned my attention to Luke. "Do you go home much?"

Luke's gaze fell to the ground and he admitted, _"Not really… Tim and I agreed that… well, I can't go home because I'm a Pokémon…"_

"Wait, you haven't seen your family since you became a Pokémon?" I asked. That would be terrible to not see your family for that long of time. How long was it again? Four years of not seeing his parents?

"_Well, I did see them when I was still newly a Pokémon and I couldn't use my telepathy that well. And when Tim finally realized that I was Luke, then he and I agreed that it would be too strange of a family to treat a Yamask as a son. I couldn't have a Pokémon journey and I might've been kept away from Tim thanks to the circumstances of my death…" _

I stared at Luke, then Tim, then back to Luke. "So your parents think that you are dead, like completely gone? They don't know that your soul is a Yamask now?"

"Luke's family thinks that my Yamask is an ancient person from the Relic Castle's past that felt pity for me. They don't know." Tim admitted sadly. "I don't know if it's the right choice, but we made it and we're sticking to it."

I felt my sympathy for Luke soar at an all-time high. He was killed and he wasn't able to tell his parents that he was now a Yamask. His parents knew him as dead.

"_Well, there are more pictures, so go ahead." _Luke thought cheerfully. _"You don't have to feel sorry for me; I'm probably happiest out on a Pokémon journey with my best friend."_

I nodded and put that picture in the back of the small stack. The next one had the young Luke and his father, a large guy with similarly black and curly hair. They were standing in front of a school sign and a school in the background.

"That's my first day of school." Luke thought proudly. "My dad and Tim's dad went to that same school when they were young, so that place was a really good school. I had a lot of fun there."

I stared at the young Luke in the picture. He looked so happy and full of life. There seemed to be a tint of blush on his cheeks. And his hair was so curly! I looked back at Luke's Yamask form and nodded. "I can see a little resemblance." I said jokingly.

The next picture was a group picture. There was a salt-and-pepper haired man with his hand on a young chestnut-haired boy's shoulder. Then Luke's dad and what I assumed his mom were standing by the happy young Luke. Also in the picture were a great Carcosta and Sawsbuck on Luke's family's side and a Beheeyem and a Golett on the other side.

"Who's all of these people?" I asked.

This time Tim took the picture and pointed out everyone. He pointed to Luke's side of the picture and said, "That's Luke, his mom Toiba Dimitri, his dad Robert Dimitri, Sawsbuck, and there was no room on the other side, so Carcosta is on Luke's side. Then on my side is-"

"Wait, your side? Where are you?" I asked. I didn't see any black-haired emo kid in the picture.

Tim gave me that same 'are you serious' look. "I'm the kid with the archeologist father."

I looked again and frowned. "So is that your natural hair color then? Chestnut brown hair?" There went my amusement with imagining Tim with blonde hair.

"Yeah."

"So why'd you change your hair color?"

"That's not important." He continued to introduce everyone in the photo, "I'm the brown-haired kid, and that's my father Simon Feldman. The Pokémon around us are Golett and Eglantine the Beheeyem." All Pokémon in this picture with the exception of Sawbuck are my father's." He sat back and handed the picture back to me. "Those are our families when I was eleven and Luke was seven."

I looked at the picture again in closer detail. Sure enough I could see a slight similarity of Tim in the picture and the Tim that sat beside me. Chestnut brown… I still couldn't imagine Tim being anything other than black-haired. I asked Luke, "So your last name was Dimitri?"

"_Yep. My dad worked at Icirrus gym as a trainer there. That's how I ended up being an under-aged Pokémon trainer. He just loves Pokémon fights. He taught Tim a lot!"_

I giggled. I still couldn't imagine that a Yamask had a last name, even a family. But then again, he was a past-human. "Luke Dimitri… I don't think I can call you anything other than plain Luke."

"_That's fine, I only go by Luke. Tim on the other hand-"_

"Hey!" the guy in question snapped and gave the ghost a stern look.

"_-doesn't want to talk about his nicknames…"_ Luke admitted sheepishly.

I chuckled a little. Those two were a strange duo, but close friends nonetheless. I wish I had a friend I knew that well. Well, I knew that well **and** didn't threaten my life. I knew Ouri from childhood, but I hadn't seen him in years and I wasn't as close with him as I could have been had I stayed in Lacunosa.

The next picture was of slightly older Luke laughing at (or with) the same brown-haired Tim at a table of a fancy restaurant of sorts. The shot was a sort of close-up so that I could see the two boys at better detail. I glanced between the picture and Tim to confirm that it was the same person. _Yup, the face and eyes and nose were the same._ It was still strange (and yet fitting) that Tim had light brown hair. Luke, still being his cheery and curly-haired self, still had blush on his cheeks as if he was always happy.

"_That's at Odo's, the nicest place to eat in Icirrus."_ Luke thought.

"We ate there to celebrate my dad getting a job offer from the famous Eugene Kwester in the Relic Castle. You know how that turned out." Tim explained. "After that we traveled to Nacrene to meet up with that famous Pokémon breeder and revive Archen from a fossil. On the way I borrowed my dad's Carcosta to defeat Skyla and Clay in their gyms."

I nodded as the time and setting started to make sense to me. This was a picture of Luke almost a week or so before he died. I gulped and felt sad at thinking that. The last picture was of Luke hugging Siggy's tail, his blushing cheeks and curly hair defining him.

"That was the day before we went inside Relic Castle. Mr. Dimitri caught Siggy and gave it to Luke as a 'pet' (but we all know differently). This is the last picture that was taken of Luke."

I gulped and stared at the picture. I felt the pity rise once again and I wondered, _he looks so happy in this picture, in all of them. What is my latest picture and would others be able to look back on my life and see that I was always having fun like Luke_? I snapped out of my daze and handed the photos back to Luke. "Thanks for the pictures. I still know you better as a Yamask, but it was very cool to see you as a person…" I could have said something a little more eloquent, but oh well.

Tim leaned back against the wall where I was and said, "So, ready for the next round of contests, partner?"

I gave him my still uneasy look. "Sure, though I still haven't agreed to try and help you with your friendship and killing touch and the like. So… yeah. And you being this friendly is just weird…"

"Well it's either death by me or death by Kyurem, your choice."

"Shut up about Kyurem! It is not going to show up outside of Giant Chasm any time soon and I'm sure that I'm never going to the Giant Chasm!" I shot back. _The nerve of him!_ "And if by some strange chance it does show up, I will not die by it!"

"Whatever you say." Tim said flippantly and stood up. He stretched and said, "But you'll still have to put up with me since we're in the same team."

"Why do you want me to be your friend? I thought you hated me." I mumbled moodily.

He looked down at me and said evenly, "I did. I hated everyone until you kept asking me questions about me. I think your curiosity made you seem friendly to me. I see that you still don't think me as a friend, but I don't really care."

I stared at him. He was being so honest it surprised me. But even though I still held a grudge against him for his rudeness and past misdeeds, I did admit earlier today that I already considered myself friends with Tim and Luke. Besides Ouri, they were people that I spent lots of time with. And of course Malcolm was a friend, but I hardly knew him like I knew Tim now.

But something about Tim and me… we had some similarities. We were both only-children and had family issues. We didn't have all that much badges and very few friends that we were close to. We spaced out a lot and were thinkers. Tim came in Mistralton to prove himself and I came to prove others wrong about an all-male gym. And then our fears… somehow I felt that they were connected but I couldn't place how. We had deep fears, ones that controlled our actions and minds.

My eyes widened as I realized something. Tim was so blunt and unfriendly because he didn't want friends. He didn't want friends because he was afraid of letting them die. He rejected Malcolm's offers so readily because he didn't want to have a friend die. _Or maybe I'm overanalyzing and he simply hates Malcolm. That might be it. _But still, Tim didn't have any new friends other than slightly me because he feared his killing curse so badly…

"What?" He asked flatly. "Do you see a Cubchoo or something?"

"No, I just was thinking of something surprising, like you actually have feelings…" I stopped myself from talking and let my eyes widen. I glared at Tim and blurted out, "I'm starting to sound like you! You're a bad influence!"

Tim chuckled a little. It was an amused chuckle and not a usually dark or sarcastic laugh. Once again it set my nerves in high alert. He smirked and shook his head, then walked out of the cave with the soup bowls in hand.

Luke closed his eyes happily and thought, _"See, I told you that you two could be good friends!"_

I sighed and said quietly to the ghost, "As long as I don't die I **might** be ok with it."


	37. Theo the Pidove Returns

**Utopia's POV**

After that whole dramatic encounter, I almost felt a little happier. Call me crazy but talking with Tim seemed to clear up a few things. Our truce was now more of a friendship (though I hadn't agreed to it fully yet) and I could trust Tim a tiny bit more now than I did yesterday, even a few hours ago.

Well, we still had to complete the challenges the trainers had for us, so sitting around in Twist Mountain was out of the question. I had to stop thinking about any chance of meeting my worse fear in the flesh and focus on other things, mainly trying to win the challenge and seeing if I could make it somehow in the Pokémon world. I didn't have to wonder about Tim a whole lot now, since he was a little more open about his past and such.

As much as Tim had told me about his life, I still felt a little hidden from him. But that was fine; I couldn't tell him that I felt like a worthless trainer who had no idea what her future would look like. He had his goals all set before him; he knew his trade. And he was in this competition to prove to his dad that he was capable of being a Pokémon trainer. He was so clairvoyant (ooh, I feel so smart using a word that means 'to be perceptive or far-sighted') and I was so… well, in the present, trying to make up things as I went along. No matter if we became good friends in the future, I couldn't mention my uncertainty of the future and what I was going to be.** No one **needed to know that.

I walked out into the light (which blinded me for a second) and stared at Archeops and Siggy waiting to take us up in the air. Tim was again showing his relaxed and happy side while in a cave, especially since he called this place home. He gave me a small grin and hoisted himself on Siggy's head.

I took my place on Archeops' back and Luke hovered by my head as our mounts took to the sky. I kind of enjoyed the flying, especially since I felt I could trust Archeops to transport me safely. I smiled and said to Tim over the wind, "I guess all of your Pokémon can float or fly now."

"Archen… I mean Archeops is probably happy that he can finally fly. He was annoyed with being the only bird Pokémon that couldn't. Now these challenges today might get easier with his help."

"Ar! Arche Archeops ops!" The fossil bird agreed happily.

I paused and felt suddenly panicked. "Hey, do you remember where our next place is? I don't remember hearing from Chase about our next trainer…"

Tim gave me a degrading look and shook his head. "You really don't plan ahead, do you?" I mumbled back incoherent and discontented words that were lost in the wind. Tim continued anyways, "I asked Chase while you were hitting the bathroom where we had to go next. Then while you were daydreaming in that cave I told my Pokémon where to fly to." He shook his head yet again. "You'd be a complete mess without me, wouldn't you?"

"Not a complete mess! Just maybe a little frazzled and scatter-brained…" I quipped back. Even though he was more of a friend he still had his sarcastic and biting humor.

"Right."

I puffed out my cheeks and asked, "Then where are we going for the next challenge? And will Gregor and that crazy harlequin be ahead of us?"

Tim leaned with Siggy as it turned in its flight and I clutched Archeop's feathers to keep from slipping. When we were flying next to each other again he replied, "Everyone had a lunch break, though I think we spent a little longer on lunch than the others. They might be ahead of us but I doubt it." he paused and said in a more serious tone. "And what was that whole thing about Albert foretelling to not get blown away by the wind?"

"I don't know, it seemed kind of coincidental to me. And he seems to be honest about not having to do anything with Tornadus…"

"If he told you not to get blown away before you got attacked by Tornadus, I'd be concerned. I just have a feeling that something's not right." Tim said darkly.

I didn't want to listen to Tim. Everything was going fine. We were just competing in a gym challenge to master flying-type Pokémon. The Tornadus must've been a freak accident. There wasn't any plot behind this and it certainly wouldn't have anything to do with my greatest fear! "You're just thinking too much; we're in a challenge and once this over and we see who wins, then my life will go back to normal. There can't be anything wrong."

"Or maybe Malcolm decided to borrow his cousin's Pokémon and lost control of it. There are many possibilities in this scenario." He said over the wind. "Even so, we need to be ready for whatever is happening."

"Malcolm wouldn't do that!" I defended my friend. "We both know that he wouldn't want to try to use his cousin's Pokémon for his own selfish gain. He's too friendly to be like that."

"But do you really know him?" Tim gave me a strange, deep stare that seemed to penetrate my soul.

I gulped at his intensity and shook my head slowly. "I know about him… but not a whole lot about his life and interests. Maybe I don't know him that well but I don't think he could have an ulterior motive. Besides, why would he want to send his cousin's Pokémon on me? He's my friend."

Tim rolled his eyes. "Sheesh, you are so observant to things you want and oblivious about other things…"

"What?" I huffed.

"We'll talk later, our stop is right up ahead." Tim said seriously as both Siggy and Archeops began to descend.

From the sky the place that we were landing in was a small clearing in the forest. In fact, I recognized the place. I stared in wonder as we started to circle around the large tree that I had followed Tim to when Pidove was quarantined. _Strange how that worked out… if fate or some Arceus Pokémon is up there is has a weird sense of humor._ Or maybe Tim knew ahead of time… "Hey you little plotter!" I gave Tim a sly look. "Don't tell me that you planned this whole friendship conversation as soon as you heard where our next stop was."

He mirrored my look. "I didn't. The timing was just right to talk to you about it then. It's coincidental but not by **my** methods."

"Sure…" I giggled to myself, and then realized that I had just acted like him again. He was becoming a bad influence! That or we were more alike than I originally figured.

We landed in the small clearing to see only a pilot reclining his feet on a collapsible and cloth-covered table and playing with a model airplane. I thanked Archeops for the ride and got off his yellow feathered back. Tim got off of Siggy and returned both Pokémon to their balls. I stared at the pilot and waited for him to notice us.

The pilot glanced lazily up from his playing and noted, "You took a while for your lunch break I was just about… wait, I thought Team Specs was up next."

"We passed Team Specs at Chase's challenge." Tim said evenly. "So what's your challenge?"

The pilot shrugged. "I dunno, if you ask nicer I might tell you."

I stepped forward and said with a smile, "Can you please tell us about your challenge?"

Tim groaned behind me to show his disgust for being friendly for the sake of information.

The pilot stood up off his chair and lifted the cloth on the table to reveal the painfully familiar cage of Pidoves. "Now that you've asked nicely, I'll tell you. You see, my name is Ted and I've dreamed of being a pilot for as long as I can remember. I played with model planes, constructed them, went to the flying shows here, and once I even got to see the Blue Angels. So since I can do whatever I want with this challenge, I took the liberty of claiming your Pidoves from the earlier rounds and with their help they will find ten hidden planes in this huge tree."

Tim interjected, "And what about my Pidove? It caught rabies."

"Guy has that same problem. All I can say is 'sucks for you'." Ted said with an obvious dislike. Strangely this pilot seemed a little more child-like and immature to me, almost like he had never grown up from his model planes. He turned back to me and continued to explain the rules of his challenge. "So your job is to use your Pidove and any other small flying Pokémon to search in the tree for my model planes and place them on the correct tables. Each table is marked with its model number and name. This is more of a puzzle game and you need a knowledge of planes. After all, if you are serious about being in this gym, you need to know about airplanes. And be careful, these are my precious models!"

_So we have to know airplane models and names? Landorus! I knew next to nothing about planes._ I gave Tim a nervous look. "I don't know anything about plane models…" I admitted.

"I don't either."

"So… how are we going to label them?" I gulped.

Tim drew out a Pokéball and said confidently, "First we'll find the Pokémon, and then we can figure out labeling."

"Hey, you can't use your big flying Pokémon that you flew in on. These are small planes!" Ted interjected with a pouty frown. "Call out a smaller Pokémon, not that fossil thing."

Tim gave Ted a withering look. "Then can my Yamask be qualified?"

The pilot looked at Luke hovering by my head. "I thought the Yamask belonged to her…"

"He's just a good friend-I-mean friendly to me." I corrected myself quickly. "Luke is with Tim."

"Ya yamask." Luke said out loud. I was surprised to not hear any telepathy from him. Maybe I was so used to his thoughts that the absence of them was foreign.

Ted the pilot nodded slowly. "Even though it isn't flying type I guess I can trust it to be careful." He turned to the cage and took out a Pidove. "I believe this one will aid Utopia."

Theo chirped and fluttered over to my arm and clamped his claws in my unprotected arm. I jerked my arm under the pain and Theo the Pidove flew back into the air, twittering madly. "Your claws hurt you idiot! Why can't you learn that your claws hurt me? That's the third time you've done that to me, Theo." I scolded the angry bird right back. I sighed and set my large backpack on the ground to find that shirt to cover my arm with.

"You can trust my Yamask to be careful." Tim said to Ted.

"_Yup, but if you call me an 'it' again I might be tempted to… you know, accidentally throw the model plane into a herd of stampeding Bouffalants…"_ Luke thought in an innocent tone.

Both Tim and I chuckled at Luke's thoughts, leaving Ted to wonder what was so funny.

Suddenly a stray wind picked up and I wheeled around from my ruined shirt searching in fear of a green Pokémon planning on putting me in a whirlwind again. I relaxed as I saw that a large and graceful Swanna was causing the wind.

The rider directed the swan Pokémon to land in the clearing and jumped off its back. The rider, Leader Skyla herself, marched up to me with a worried expression and put her hands on my shoulders. She looked me in the eye and said, "Are you ok? I could only come out now to check up on you. I heard this terrible story of a Tornadus attacking you. If you need, I can pull you out and let you rest!"

I held up my hands and replied nervously, "No, really, I'm fine. Tim and Luke saved me and I feel fine now." _Since when did Skyla want to check up on me?_

The red-headed gym leader stood up straight and looked at Tim. "I know Tim, but who's Luke…?"

"Yam ya." Luke waved his thick black arm in greeting.

Skyla looked surprised at this fact. "A little Yamask took on a Tornadus? Maybe I underestimate-"

"Luke just used a special ability of his, we didn't wound the Tornadus." Tim explained and gave Skyla a slight bow. "So you came to check up to see if we were ok? You are very kind…"

The leader nodded thoughtfully, and then smiled. "Hey, it's no problem. It's just a hop, skip, and a jump to find you. And a legendary Pokémon showing up is unexpected, so naturally a gym leader would be up in arms about it. I mean I don't want to go into the fight against the seven sages those few years ago, there was an epic battle between the king of Team Plasma and a kid named Black… that had legendary Pokémon all over it!" she winked continued, "Don't want that to happen again."

"Gym leaders investigate when legendary Pokémon are involved?" I gulped. _And did gym trainers come with if a __**certain**__ legendary Pokémon showed up?_ And by 'certain' you know what I mean.

"Yes, the job of a gym leader is to fight trainers, protect their town, and to aid in a crisis that involves the Unova region. We're almost like a police force."

"_Yup! That's what my dad says."_ Luke thought happily. However, only Tim and I heard him. Maybe Luke didn't know how to (or didn't want to) talk to Skyla.

I gulped and nodded to hide my fading confidence. "Cool."

"Well if you could stand up to a Tornadus, the both of you, then you might be gym leader material. However, you still need a long ways to go." Skyla said cheerily and yet threateningly at the same time. How she was able to sound cheery and evil at the same time was a mystery to me. Skyla sighed happily and said, "Well, I'm glad to hear that the both of you are fine. Maybe at supper I could get to hear the full story?"

I shrugged. "I don't really think you want to hear, I mean… it just came and then Luke made it go away…"

"If you want us to, I guess we can." Tim said in a slightly louder voice than me. I gave him a slight glare but didn't really care to fight him on that. Besides, he probably was looking forward to showing off in front of the gym leader.

Skyla gave us a quick glance and said, "I swear that there's something different about you two. It's almost like you are more than just 'tolerating' each other if you know what I mean…"

"Sorta friends… of a sort…" I mumbled.

The red-headed gym leader smiled and hopped on her Swanna's back. "Ok then, Team DragonVow, good luck on the challenges." And without another word or moment more, she took back to the sky, a gust of wind indicating her leaving.

I sighed and looked at Tim. "Ok, so now we get to find some planes hidden in that big tree, right?"

"Sure, friend." He smirked.

"I didn't agree to that yet!"

"You said it to Skyla."

"I said 'sorta' as in 'almost'."

"Then I'll 'sorta' help you in your phobia." He said haughtily.

"For the LAST TIME-"

Ted interrupted us from our little squabble. "Hey, stop arguing and search the tree for the ten planes. And did I mention there's a time limit?"

"Landorus!" I swore angrily. I threw Pebbles' Pokéball at the ground and pointed to the tree. "Pebbles, Theo, and Luke, go get those planes stat!"

"Um, the time limit is forty-five minutes and if you can't complete it in that amount of time you automatically go on to the next challenge…" Ted explained.

I tripped over my own feet and nearly sprawled on the ground face down. _Why me? Why'd I have to be so weird and overactive, especially around Tim? _In other words; showing my regular, bumbling self._ Again, I tended to be like this normally on my own (as example of stumbling of Jamie's tea party) but not in front of people._ And now after my performance of my usual sloppiness, I was just asking for an insult.

"You need a break; I think you're acting way too energetic for your own good." Tim observed calmly. I wasn't sure if that was an insult or not but it wasn't concern for my health. He almost seemed embarrassed of being in my company.

I sighed and sat down on the ground. "Energetic for my own good…" I mumbled angrily. "Ok, you can take over the competition then."

"Luke and the two birds are already in the tree if you care to look."

I sighed and let my head drop a little. "Ok, say it, I'm incompetent and will drag you down in this whole challenge…" There it went; my whole-self-pity mode again. Boy, I was sure emotional that day and emotionally frank. I couldn't explain why I was so reactive other than the previous emotional roller coaster of fearing Kyurem and stuff like that.

"Um, what's wrong with you?" Tim asked ignorantly.

I cleared my throat and shook my head. "Well, do you want a list?" I snickered at my own joke and leaned back a little while sitting down. "Maybe you're right, I just need some rest or something." I sighed once again and stared at the tree, not caring to see where Tim was standing. What bugged me was that I was acting like my normal self while traveling the Unova region with a friend/partner person. Were my own actions speaking louder than my words? Was I already accepting Tim as a friend? Well, my nicknames for him had disappeared for the most part. That was a sign of me knowing someone…

A small glint of light caught my eye and I squinted to see if I had spotted a plane. It was hard to tell, but I certainly saw something in one of those lower branches. I waved my hands and called out, "Hey, Pebbles, Theo, I think I see one!"

Theo popped out of the tree branches and started looking around for my directions.

I pointed to the glint of light and said, "Check out that spot."

"Pi?" Theo chirped and stared fluttering in the opposite direction.

"No, no, your other left." I called back. "One of the lower branches."

Theo turned back around but was still at a loss to where I was trying to tell it to go.

I clapped my hands together in frustration and yelled, "It's in that bunch of branches." I suddenly felt a little weird, as if I had been poisoned with a spore of some kind. I spun around to see if a notorious Foongus was being evil and covering me with its variety of spores, but nothing was there and the feeling vanished as well. I shivered to myself and thought, _whatever that was I sure hope I don't do it again…_

However, Theo was fluttering back with the plane I had spotted in the tree clutched in his talons. He set it at my feet and chirped happily. I stared at the bird and asked, "How'd you…? Never mind, good work little Theo. I guess you found it after all." I stood back up and held the little grey plane up for Tim to see. "Did you see that?"

"I heard you yelling and look around you like you were crazy." Tim said oh-so helpfully. He showed me a plane that Luke had found and set it on one of the tables. "I'm starting to wonder if you are. Seriously."

I set the plane on the same table and gave him an exasperated look. "Don't judge me, ok? I'm blaming it on Tornadus…"

Luke floated over to Theo and asked the Pidove something. After getting an answer he floated back to me and thought, _"Theo is very impressed at your commanding skills."_

I smirked at that. "What commanding skills?"

"_Well, after a little he said that he could feel with you where the plane was hidden. It takes a great trainer to connect with a Pokémon like that."_ Luke thought happily. Then he gave me a strange, searching look_. "Do you have a certain skill of it?"_

My blank stare spoke for me.

"_I'm just wondering. If you don't want to talk-"_

"No, it's just that I have no training skills whatsoever. My own Larvesta (who I raised from an egg) doesn't listen to me, how can I be good at training Pokémon?" I answered. Ok, this was getting weird. That strange feeling while instructing him… and Theo felt that I made a connection with him? "I don't know… I guess Theo's giving me more credit than I deserve." I frowned and started thinking about what just happened. What did I do to make a little Pidove feel that I was connecting with him?

"Or maybe you have 'utopia' powers." Tim smirked. "The last time I heard you yell like that was back in the gym."

"Very funny…" I huffed back.


	38. Utopia's Tears

**A/N: Satoshi Tajiri owns and did create Pokémon. I do not own or create Pokémon. The result: I am not Satoshi Tajiri. Now that that's settled, on with the story.**

**Tim's POV**

I stared at the two planes the Pokémon had found so far and started thinking what each of the models could be called. One of the models was more streamlined than the other and was painted with red streaks. I compared it to the names on the ten tables and frowned. It didn't help when names were mainly numbers and makers…

I glanced over to my crazy partner and admitted a little teasingly, "If a soothsayer keeps on saying that 'you are utopia', I think I have good reason to expect 'utopia' powers from you." There was something strange about Utopia now, as if her normally annoyed and bumbling demeanor had changed a little. Her over-reactions to the time limit and her near face-planting seemed a little out of character for her, and yet it was amusing.

And what was that weird sentence about her dragging me down and being incompetent? Last I checked she still had made contributions to the team. And even though I planned ahead and ticked her off about it, I didn't view her as a hindrance. What was up with her then?

Utopia sighed exaggeratedly, slumping her shoulders forward and her discontent plain on her face. "Whatever… If you want to try to figure out what the planes are named then I'll watch out for the three snatching Pokémon…"

I feigned boredom and turned back to the planes in my hands. There had to be some way of identifying these planes without any prior knowledge. Hell, I knew lots of history but I never really paid attention to more recent history, as in the wars of a few generations ago. My forte was with the kind of history you could dig up. I was pretty sure that Ted had a model or two of some war airships as well as cargo or passenger carriers from that war a while back.

I looked over the list of aircraft names to try to get an idea of what I could classify the two mystery planes as. Boeing 747-400, Fokker F28, Grumman F-3F, Hornet F-12 Blue Angels Series, SR-71 Black Bird, and five others. Granted, if I knew anything about planes it would be easy to classify the two in my hands. But I didn't know the difference and had never really cared about planes. I sighed inwardly. _Great, all of our training doesn't help us with this challenge…_

Utopia was a little quieter than before and she sat back down in the grass, undoubtedly thinking about something. Luke, who hadn't gone back to the tree yet, thought to me, "_There's something odd about Utopia…"_

I gave my friend the 'no duh' look.

"_I mean it. Theo said that he distinctly felt Utopia's guidance while finding that plane…"_

"I don't think it's all that important." I said in a hushed tone. "What I'm worried about is her hyper-activeness. I know her to be usually angry or timid or aimlessly lost."

Luke shrugged. _"Maybe she's opening up to us like a friend?"_

I shook my head and shooed Luke on, "Go and find some more planes in the tree, please Luke. We need your help to get through this annoying challenge." The ghost hesitantly floated back to the tree. I could tell that he felt something odd or off not too long ago but I couldn't place in what. I on the other hand was feeling a little, I dunno, different. Well, how else would you feel if you told your secret fear?

I had finally come out and told Utopia my vow, my vow that only I, Luke, and now she knew. I had showed so much of myself to her and she seemed to **accept** me. Sure we still had our disagreements and teases, but I felt like I had found a friend in her. Call it sappy, but I really thought of her as a friend.

But what had made us friends in the first place? We came into the competition hating each other and now she was the only other person I could really talk to other than Luke. Then again, Luke's push for us to be friends could have influenced it. Come to think of it, maybe my change in perspective was in this same place, when Utopia (whether on her own will or by Luke's suggestion) had followed me here by this tree.

"Have any idea what the planes are?" Utopia asked in almost a worn-down voice.

"Not really." I stared at the planes again and tried to focus on the task at hand. If only this competition was a little more Flying-Pokémon practically, then I wouldn't be so stumped. And Luke couldn't help either since his knowledge of planes was about as much as mine. How were planes supposed to help a trainer anyways?

Pebbles the Vullaby returned with a plane in her talons. After giving it to me she flew back to the huge tree. I was left with a clunky sort of plane that looked like an older model due to its dual wings and connections between the two. _Don't know what I would call that one…_

…

Time dragged on ridiculously slow. And Ted's indignation with mislabeled planes was tempting me to make Luke hold to his model plane threat. We had found all but one plane and so far (by trial and error) I had successfully guessed the correct names of two of them. I didn't remember how much time we had but I didn't really care if we completed it or not anyways. It was a pointless contest.

I set down one of the planes on the table and Ted face-palmed. "You honestly think that's a Fokker?"

I rolled my eyes and checked on Utopia. She was at the base of the tree, looking up through the branches to see if she could spot the last one for the ground as her Pidove, Vullaby, and Luke searched above. As far as I could tell she was her normal self and her commanding power hadn't shown itself again, if that even existed.

"I'm talking to you!" The pilot snapped at me.

"I already told you that I don't give a damn about this little plane labeling." I droned back lazily.

This enraged the pilot even more, his face reddening. "This is important to know if you ever want to work with a gym that has planes in it!"

I wanted to kindly remind him that I didn't want to work in the gym at all, but I held back. As much as it was to make people angry, I didn't want to risk throwing him into an uncontrollable temper. He did have standing and say in the gym. I shrugged and placed the plane on the table next to it.

"That's not a Black Bird!" He exclaimed and grasped his hair in stress. "You have nothing compared to Pavel and Dan in Team Junior Senior! Pavel got all the planes right in one try!"

_That's because Pavel is a suck-up to this gym. He knows the people here and will try his hardest to appeal to them. I have a little more dignity than that._ I thought darkly.

"Great job Luke! You found the last one!" Utopia cheered in her strange, expressive way. She pumped her fist in the air and laughed cheerfully. I was still unsure if that was normal for her or if she really was somehow impaired from Tornadus. Or maybe Luke was right in that she was almost accepting me as a friend even though she protested against it. I can trust Luke to feel other being's feelings since he had Pokémon instincts.

Utopia and Luke came over to the table by me with the last plane, a sleek black model, in Luke's hands. I nodded for their success and placed the new plane on the table marked 'Black Bird'. That had to fit.

Ted sighed a little. "At least you could get the obvious one…"

I tried to ignore the stupid pilot and nodded to Utopia. "I've got three of them matched up. Now we both have to match them up." I paused and thanked Luke a little too late. "And good work Luke."

"_It was really hard to find in the tree because it was all wedged in a hollow and it was black… but Theo and Pebbles thought there had to be something there so I yanked it out." _Luke explained happily. _"It's a really cool tree, I have to admit."_

"Great. And could you help us with the matching too? Three of us will be faster than two." It always gave me pleasure to confuse other people about Luke. Everyone assumed he was a Pokémon at first glance, so it was always fun to surprise people when he did something human-like.

Wait, it didn't **always** give me amusement… when I first had Luke in my team I tried to hide him for other people. I guess Luke's bright personality had changed that. Not to mention that his past wasn't a complete secret. Utopia knew about it… But why did something seem to change with Utopia's help?

I turned back to the planes and names and sighed angrily. This still was a stupid test.

The next sorting went out a little faster than before. Sure Ted kept yelling at us for making mistakes of the planes, but it went by faster while listening to Luke's mischievous thoughts. Luke looked like a cute little kid when he was human, but most people didn't know he loved to prank as well. Utopia stayed relatively quiet, which was strange. Or maybe she was spacing off in her own world.

I didn't know if we finally correctly labeled the planes or if time ran out, but Ted sent us off to go to the next challenge, the joint challenge of Cliff and Arnold. Surprisingly Utopia and I were almost done with the circuit already!

I nodded to the team to show that I was pleased with their work. I wasn't one to hand out compliments easily. "One more challenge and then it'll be over."

"_Yay!"_ Luke cheered.

Utopia smiled. "Finally, then I can rest."

"You don't look tired." I said flatly.

She huffed and crossed her arms. "Don't you remember getting up at six in the morning, and then training until we ate? I'm for some relaxing time after this…"

"Are you going to call Jamie?" I gave her a knowing look. I suspected that she wanted to confirm with Jamie about her phobia arriving.

She jumped, completely caught off guard. She growled at me, "I swear you're always one step ahead… Fine, yes I am because I'm sick of you using that—well, you know—that prediction as a threat." She was exceedingly sensitive about Kyurem. It was amusing and at the same time almost annoying. I promised to help her get over her phobia, but if it was this severe then I was going to have lots of work to do. And when I promise something I will keep it, especially since she was my friend.

"You can call her right now, I don't care." Actually I wanted to send dad a text for a Pokémon delivery. Last I checked Mr. Dimitri's Haxorus had a few hatchling Axew. An Axew would not only be nice to have on the team, but possibly to coax Utopia out of her phobia. Axew are cute dragons.

I pulled out the Xtransceiver and opened the unread text from my father. As I expected the text read, [Tim, hope you're doing well in the contest and that you aren't skipping off in a cave somewhere. I want to be sure that you can still be a Pokémon trainer, so please don't hate me for sending you out there.] Yup, that was my dad's style. He was firm and yet friendly. If I didn't have a conscious I could easily lie to him that I was back training Pokémon while exploring caves to my liking.

"What'd the unread message say?" Utopia asked and peered over at the screen.

I whipped it out of her vision and said defensively, "It's a personal message, back off." Her curiosity was very annoying sometimes. I turned my back on her and started texting my dad back about the baby Axew. My dad and his friend Robert Dimitri were close enough friends that they pretty much shared their Pokémon. And what's more, the Dimitri's treated me like their son more so after Luke died. I sent the message and pocketed the device again.

Utopia and Luke were talking a bit when I turned back around. I crossed my arms and asked, "Well, are you going to call?"

"Who, my family? Well…" Utopia seemed a little preoccupied at that thought.

"No, I meant Jamie. You wanted to be free of my blackmailing, right?"

The Asian girl grew annoyed again and pulled out her Xtransceiver. "Ok, fine, but I feel weird when people listen in on my conversation…"

I held up my hands and took a few steps backward. "Fine with that." I said. I turned my back to her and started brainstorming again about this whole bad omen with a Tornadus. Then again, I had thought too much about it and had come to no conclusion, so I ended up thinking about how weird Utopia was and the strange fact that I had become friends with her after such a short time.

Then I started thinking about a cave I would like to visit, Mistralton Cave. I had heard it was a place where a Legendary Pokémon was said to sleep, but Challenger's Cave bragged that as well. And from the reports that I had heard, there was no legendary Pokémon in Challenger's Cave. But Mistralton Cave was intriguing to me because it was supposed to be close. It was named after this town after all. Or was it the other way around? That would be interesting to look into.

"WHAT?" Utopia squeaked over the Xtransceiver. I turned around and saw that her face had gone pale again. She was so easily scared by that ice dragon! She clenched the Xtransceiver tightly as if her life depended on it.

Looking at her in that state of panic made me want to either tease her about it or try to calm her down. I was leaning more of the calming down side due to the fact that she looked very unstable.

Luke hovered closer to Utopia to try his ghostly hand at comforting his newest friend.

Utopia gulped and weakly held out the phone to me. "Jamie wants to talk with you to…" she said in a dead voice.

I held out my hand to place on her shoulder to give her some comfort, but I held back and took the phone. I put it up to my ear and asked, "You wanted to speak with me?" I didn't really like this Jamie person in the first place.

The slightly distorted voice of the soothsayer came over the line. "It seems something is rotten in the state of Mistralton…"

I smirked. "What? Are you trying to be funny?"

"Actually yes. You caught on better than Utopia." The solemn voice replied. I couldn't tell by any emotion that I was right, but I went along with it. The voice continued, "Utopia said that a Tornadus attacked her and she fears of Kyurem, correct?"

I nodded. "Yes."

"I wanted to tell you something that Utopia will not be able to handle, and as her partner I can trust you to help her."

"Wait, where'd you hear that?" Ok, now this woman was getting creepy. First off she tells me about my vow and my dad's favor, and now she knows about our team already? "Are you somehow spying on us?"

"I know some parts of the future, don't be afraid." Jamie droned calmly.

"I still think it's unnerving." I muttered. "But continue then, oh wise one."

There was a pause before she replied. "Have you watched the news lately? Do you know about the meeting on top of Dragonspiral Tower?"

"No."

"I have foreseen that the meeting will be interrupted. Skyla and other gym leaders in the area will arrive to stop it. Prepare yourself and your partner." She said vaguely.

I could put together a few points here and there but was still confused. "So Kyurem **will** come? And what's this meeting about? And what makes you think that we'll be taken up there? Last I checked we are still trying to earn Skyla's approval."

The soothsayer didn't respond. I glared at the Xtransceiver and saw that the phone call had ended already. "Darn soothsayer…" I muttered and handed the device back to Utopia. I stared at her and felt my resolve waver. She looked so strangely defenseless and scared. I never knew her to be this insecure. "You don't look too good." I observed as coolly as I could.

She shook her head and returned her device to her pocket. She hugged her arms around herself and looked at the ground. Whatever Jamie had said to Utopia upset her greatly.

"Well, can we get going to the next challenge? One more and then you can have your rest." I tried to coax her out of that strange trance of hers I couldn't even tell if she heard me or not. I waved my hand in front of her face to get a response. "Hello?"

"_Maybe we should let her think this through?"_ Luke thought with concern.

I didn't want to take another break until we completed the round, but if Utopia wouldn't cooperate I couldn't try to go on myself. We were a team, a partnership. "Utopia, if you can hear me, it's ok for us to take a break."

Utopia hung her head lower to the ground. She gave a watery sigh and sat down in the browning grass. He avoided looking at me and even turned her back on me. After that she let her head fall into her hands and started sniffling.

_Ummm…._ I gave Luke a 'help me' look. _What the hell am I supposed to do now?_

Luke mirrored my same panicked look. _"Um, I don't know. She's upset about what she heard but I don't know what to do to make her feel better. I-um… uh…"_ he looked around in the woods to see if some sort of person could offer advice.

I shrugged and stared at my partner again. Well, she was certainly taking it hard. I wasn't really familiar with people crying, other than Luke's parents and others when Luke died, but at that time I was mourning **with** them. What did you do to comfort someone? And a girl no less!

Utopia continued to sob out her pains quietly and I stayed a little ways apart from her. Luke gave me a meaningful look and thought, _"Maybe she just needs someone to cry to. Maybe the best thing is just to be there for her."_

I took a deep breath. If I considered her as a friend, then if I touched her in any way my killing-touch might affect her. Not instantly, mind you, but still… _I'll take my vow seriously. I will try…_ no wait, trying will get me nowhere. _I promise to save Utopia from any way she could die. She's my friend and I will fulfill my vow. I can't let her end up like Luke, a wandering spirit or simply dead. That won't happen this time!_

I set my backpack on the ground and walked closer to her. I gulped and patted her shoulder lightly. I didn't know what to say so I just let my hand rest on her shoulder.

Utopia looked up at me, her face now had a few watery pathways for her tears and her eyes were turning red. She simply stared at me, whether in awe or confusion I couldn't really tell. Then she wiped at her face and looked back at the ground. She managed to choke out through her tears, "I'm sorry, I'm weighing… weighing you do-down again…"

This was my chance to try to help her in a low point in her life, just like when she had come after me after the Pidove was considered dead. I tried to smile and said, "Uh, well, I don't think it's that big of a deal." Crap, I sucked at comforting people.

She took a shaky breath and said, "We can… go now if… if you want… and get it over…"

"No, how about you wait here until you feel back to 100%." I sat down beside her and removed my hand from her shoulder. I gave a nervous sigh and tried to start conversation about what was bugging her. "So, what did Jamie say?"

Utopia sniffed and tried to hide her tears, but some slipped down her face despite her efforts. She smile a little and said, "I… I don't cry a whole lot-lot if you're worried…"

"It happens." I shrugged.

She pulled out a Pokéball and called Len out. The Palpitoad recognized her emotion and hopped closer to her, sending off pleasing sound waves. Len gave me a quick glance to see if I was the cause, but ignored me after his suspicions were denied. She hugged the sound toad tightly and seemed to be soothed by the sound waves. She took a shaky breath and started telling me what had made her so upset.

"Sorry again, I just… well, Jamie. I called Jamie and asked about her prediction… and she said that it was true that I would see my worst fear… and that I can stop it…" she stroked her Palpitoad a little and said, "I've never told anyone this, so can you keep a secret for me?"

I stared at her in shock before agreeing. "Yes, of course…"

"Well, I'm not really, I mean, my family isn't really from Unova… I've suspected it for a while, since I never have seen my extended family around… and when I asked my parents they hung up on me… then I get my answer from a person I only met for a few days…" she paused and fought back more tears. "I have to hear it from a soothsayer that my family is not from Unova… isn't that pathetic?"

I didn't want to answer if that was pathetic or not because I knew full well that it was exceedingly pathetic. "So where are they, and you, from?"

She shrugged slightly. "Overseas? Jamie doesn't give specifics… but she mentioned that I can stop Kyur…" she shuddered as if she couldn't say the entire name without fear. "I don't know how I can stop it, but somehow she said my family is good with Pokémon…"

I shrugged. "So you come from a Pokémon-friendly family?"

"I don't know. My dad works on the subways and my mom volunteers at a trade shop. I've rarely seen them around Pokémon…" She stared off into space while addressing me. "I don't know a whole lot of stuff. I'm scared of Kyurem and I'm allergic to furred Pokémon… what kind of trainer am I? What will I do in the future?" She flinched at her own words and hugged her sound-toad tighter.

I stared at her in amazement. She was telling me things that were very personal, that she said that she had never told anyone else. I already suspected that since she was bad at planning ahead that she didn't know what she wanted to be after she grew up. But this stuff about her family… It was strangely personal. She was opening up back to me. Maybe she really did accept me as a friend.

"You've got a lot of time to work on that." I tried to sound comforting. I glanced to see if Luke was around, but strangely he wasn't. I shrugged and looked at Utopia. She stared at me with her reddened eyes and I continued, "Compared to me at least. Remember, I'm nineteen. I'm expected to start working soon. I've always wanted to do what my dad did, even after Relic Castle. You've got at least three entire years to figure out your profession."

Utopia's breathing seemed to go back to a normal rate as she listened to my advice. She gave me a weird smile and held out her hand. "Sorry for not accepting it before now… but I think you are serious about being friends… I'll be your friend even if I don't completely trust you… but maybe I don't have to…"

I stared at her hand and raised my eyebrows. "Um , come again?"

"I'll be your friend." She gave a weak smile and held out her hand closer to me.

I accepted the hand in a shake as if we had just made a deal.

She wiped at her eyes and seemed better. "Thanks then… I mean for your words… and for listening to me… I don't have that much of friends…" she gave me an apologetic smile and corrected herself, "I mean I have friends now, but not anyone that close that I can tell anything to. Just me, the homeschooler from Anville…"

"Yes, a bumbling person that doesn't plan ahead. That's you." I smirked.

Utopia bumped her shoulder against mine with an exasperated grimace. "And you never fail to turn a nice moment into a tease. I swear to Landorus…"


	39. Gregor's Facade

**Tim's POV**

Once Utopia had gotten over her pity party for herself, we made our way to the place Ted had told us where the next challenge would be. Or 'could be', since he was appalled by our mislabeling that I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he sent us the wrong way.

Utopia tried her best to hide the fact that she was in tears a while back. She was a surprisingly strong person, well, until it came to dragon Pokémon. But even though she had low self-esteem, she could certainly act like a tough person. If she didn't then I wouldn't have been as surprised when she told me off.

It still was incredible to me that it took only a day for her to think about the implications of being my friend. I guess that she was scared, scared as I was. But then she came to a low point in her life and I was there to offer what little advice I could. That might've made her change her mind.

She was still sore about my joke on her and wasn't keen on much conversation. Luke, who had conveniently disappeared through the whole 'motivate Utopia' ordeal, now floated between us with a happy look. I could guess that he was pleased that we were friends.

We arrived in a small clearing just in time to see a Swoobat zip to one side of the arena with some kind of toy in its mouth. The side that the Swoobat had flown to had the polar opposite team, Pavel and Dan. (And by polar opposite I mean that they seriously have nothing in common.) The small jogger jumped in the air gleefully while the solemn pilot let the bat Pokémon perch on his arm.

"Good work, Team Junior Senior. You can go to the balance boards with Brady." The opponent, Cliff himself, said appreciatively to the trainees. He wiped his brow and saw us arriving. His two Tranquill landed on the ground, exhausted as he was. "Oh, hello." Cliff called to us. "Wow, I thought Team Specs were supposed to… and that you got attacked…"

I nodded and said calmly, "We passed up Team Specs and my Yamask took care of Tornadus. So what's this setup for?" I asked as I looked around. There was a circle in the ground made by a spray paint and two hooks on each side. There were even some chunks of grass laying upside-down and several scorch marks along the field. It looked like a hard sort of game… (at least it looked like there was more strategy in this game instead of Ted's plane labeling…)

Dan and Pavel returned their Pokémon (a Ducklett and the Swoobat respectively) and went on their way, not giving us a second look.

The other gym trainer, Arnold, waved us over. "This is a game similar to the PokéRinger in Hoenn and Sinnoh. Come closer and I'll explain the rules."

"I can explain… as well…" puffed Cliff, who obviously was too worn to say anything other than a few phrases. He had faced off with Pavel and Dan in the game with the ring, so I would imagine that he was tired. Pavel was not to be underestimated with is knowledge of bird Pokémon.

I nodded to Utopia and we both walked over to the chiseled figure. Arnold crossed his arms and began to explain the rules. "This game is a cross between capture-the-flag and the PokéRinger in the Hoenn and Sinnoh regions-"

I glanced to Utopia to see if she was thinking about her heritage again. I couldn't tell, so I listened carefully to the burly gym trainer.

"-the goal of this game is to capture you opponent's ring and bring it to your side three times for the match to be called. You are allowed to use two flying type Pokémon in the match. If no one shows up within a half-hour, Cliff will battle you. The team that just won had to fight Team Shining Luxray and then had to wait for lunch break and the half-hour penalty. This by far is the most time-consuming challenge you will face today."

"So we either attack or defend with the two Pokémon and whoever reaches three goals first wins? Sounds simple enough." I mused and nodded to my teammate. Our training was going to have a great effect on our Pokémon team work. She would have to call out Vullaby, but I was allowed to call out Archeops or Sigilyth. And if Team Specs was going to complete their task in under a half-hour, I'd fight their Tranquill and Sigilyth. I didn't want to get my Sigilyth confused with the other one, so maybe I would consider Archeops.

Though, they would expect me to use Archeops after his show of evolving in Celestial Tower's challenge. Hell, they knew all of my Pokémon. If they kept careful tabs on everyone (like I have) then everyone would know each other's Pokémon. But that was unlikely.

"And another thing, if the ring is dropped the Pokémon returns to its base-side and the ring is replaced on its original hook. All Pokémon moves are allowed with the exception of fatal hits. Heavily wounded Pokémon are to be withdrawn and the trainer will supply another flying-type Pokémon." Arnold continued.

Utopia looked shocked and appalled at this. "But what if I only have one flying-type Pokémon?"

Cliff, panting from his hard battle, tried to explain, but Arnold cut him off. "Then either you borrow one from your teammate or the team is left with one Pokémon." The burly man said with very little compassion.

"That's fine, I've got two flying type Pokémon and all of my team can float or fly." I replied, refusing to show any intimidation. I gave Utopia an encouraging look and said, "But we've trained our Pokémon so I don't think Pebbles is going to be in trouble." Yes, I used the nickname, and yes I was encouraging my teammate. So what?

Utopia nodded and hardened her resolve. "True. So we wait for a half-hour for the next team to arrive? And if they don't then Cliff will fight?"

"Yes, because Cliff has two gym Pokémon on him. I only have one." Arnold answered.

"Then why didn't you tag-team with Cliff and use your Pokémon with his?" I asked.

Arnold looked flustered and annoyed. "Well, uh, someone has to be the judge of the match…"

"You could have just said that." I leered. It's always so amusing to see people's reactions and annoyance. Arnold's annoyance was on the border of me backing up and apologizing, **but** it still was entertaining.

"Shut up." The burly mechanic growled.

I shrugged slyly and looked at Utopia. "Ok then, we've got a half-hour to strategize. Come on."

Luke floated up to me and mused, _"This challenge looks strange. I don't know what to make of it. And how can only two Pokémon defend and get the ring from the other side? If we know the opponent's Pokémon then we might have a chance, though I would mainly improvise…"_

I sighed and said softly, "You're doing it again; acting like a trainer that is…"

Luke lowered his eyes to the ground and grasped his mask tightly. _"Oh, sorry. I thought for a second I was on your team; but Utopia is." _He ended with a timid smile_. "Can I say that I think you two are becoming a great team?"_

I stared at Luke for a while before shrugging nonchalantly. "Whatever…" I knew he was right though.

"So are you going to use Archeops or Sigilyth?" Utopia asked nicely as if she wasn't in tears a half-hour ago. "I don't know if you want to use Archeops, but his rock-type will be good against other birds…"

I nodded and started walking to a place where we could strategize. "Sure, Archeops will be a good advantage, but if you use Vullaby then she won't be affected by Sigilyth's attacks. That might prove useful."

"Well it's not like I have another choice…" Utopia shrugged while following after me, beaming a timid smile. Strange, I had never seen her like that before, that happy side of her…

I nodded and sat down in the browning grass. "It just depends on how we want to approach it. And do you think that Team Specs," I paused to stop myself from sniggering from the stupid name, "will show up or will we face Cliff's Tranquills? And should we prepare for an offensive attack or defend until the opponent is tired out?" I gave her a deep stare, asking for her input. She was part of Team DragonVow after all. And maybe her adding a few ideas to our plan of attack would make her feel less of an incompetent teammate.

"I don't really know… I mean, we had such a hard time with Ted's challenge. Maybe Team Specs will have the same problem? But the only difference between those two teams is a Sigilyth instead of a second Tranquill. And a Sigilyth doesn't have much difference in type weakness against rock…" She scratched her head and sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm just not all 'here' today…"

"Well you did get attacked by a legendary Pokémon and found out some family secrets, I wouldn't blame you for… that…" I paused and looked away from Utopia. Yes, I was sympathizing for her… Well, she was my friend after all…

Luke nudged my arm a little and I shooed him away playfully. I knew what he was up to.

Utopia gave a small, happy sigh. "Ok, yet again you creep me out when you are trying to be nice, but it's the thought that counts, right?"

I sweat-dropped. _Ok, sure I was a rough, coarse person on the outside, but being creepy while being nice?_ That still irked me. "Fine." I said unemotionally. "Then our decision is whether we aim for attack or defense. Archeops will work very well with offense or defense due to his stamina. Sigilyth will work best with offense and Vullaby's dark typing could help in prevention of friendly fire."

"Ok, so let's count on facing Cli-"

"Utopia! Tim! You're waiting for us?" Called out the nerd-like trainer.

Hearing this, Utopia nearly face-planted in shock. She jumped to her feet and stared at team Specs standing before us. "How in Landorus's name did you two get through Ted's challenge so easily?" She stammered in surprise.

The nerd smiled and said modestly, "Well, Albert here collected model planes as a kid, and after we found them and sorted them we only had one mistake. Though, Ted was nice enough to correct us and sent us on our way. I think he said his last group was a little frustrating…" He ended with a kind smirk.

_So we're facing them. Easy, with their approach to the target smashing I could already tell that this was going to be easy. I'll go with offense with Archeops to keep the Sigilyths from mixing._ I stood up as well and greeted them, "Congrats then, you caught up to us. I guess watching us at the tower helped you out well?" I ended on a slightly sarcastic note. If they passed the tower challenge with help from us, then this would be easy.

Albert, the suspicious clown, grinned crazily. "Well, you were good for the pointers. Gregor and I actually kicked some serious butt after you two left." There was something about this guy I didn't like. Maybe it was the Malcolm effect (where friendly people tick me off). _Still, that statement about blowing away people…_ Albert continued, "You wouldn't believe how quickly Gregor catches on to things. He's an aspiring Gym Leader, I'll tell you that!"

"Well, yes I am… and thanks for the complement…" the nerd said modestly.

"Do you need to hear the rules of this game then?" I nodded in the direction of Arnold and the recovering Cliff. "They can fill you in." I glanced at Utopia. We needed to think of a battle strategy to pull off against them.

"Thanks." Gregor Niles nodded and walked with the strange clown to the gym trainers for instructions.

"They completed Ted's challenge really quickly… or maybe I was crying for a longer time than I thought…" Utopia thought out loud and shrugged apologetically to Luke. "Oh well, can't do anything about it…"

"I'll use Archeops, we'll go offensive on them. Once we win we can take a break." I said to the point. "And just because they seem friendly (or at least just that Gregor guy) we won't go easy, got it?"

Utopia nodded back confidently. "Ok, that'll work."

"Ok, since we are going offensive, we should try to attack the other Pokémon and get the other ring. I would say defend the ring as well, but we only have two Pokémon to pull it off. Vullaby is good with defense and can even flatter the other side. That flatter attack might help us win. And of course Archeops can use ancient power for a super effective move." I mused out loud. Usually I do all of this in my head, but since I had a teammate I needed to let her know what I was thinking and how to work together.

"Sounds great." Utopia pulled out her Pokéball for her bird. "So do we call the Pokémon out now?"

"Wait for Gregor's team to get ready." I said calmly. I checked to see how Team Specs was doing with a glance.

It looked like they had gotten all the rules and were talking with each other on their plan of attack. Gregor's Tranquill was even out of its Pokéball. The nerd patted its head cheerfully and the bird chirped in response. I narrowed my eyes. _I have to figure out these guys' attack plan and counter it as well. What tactics could they use with a Tranquill and a Sigilyth that might be hard for us to cope with? Did they already suspect facing Archeops and were taking plans against it?_

Gregor seemed like a typical Pokémon lover, and possibly well-educated. Albertus was the oldest of the group and was very quirky. His battle style could be something I've never seen before. If I was serious about Pokémon battling, I'd have to predict my opponent's moves… be prepared for anything… After all, Albert did jokingly say he had a team of legendary Pokémon; how could I trust that he had the team he said he had? How well could I trust this clown at all?

Albert waved to us at one end of the field. "We're ready when you are!" He called out cheerfully. His Sigilyth was already out and flapping its fragile-looking wings. Tranquill and Gregor were also standing at the ready.

Utopia gave a small sigh and stepped out to our side of the field. I followed, as well as Luke.

Gregor noticed Luke and observed in a friendly way, "I see that your Yamask is very important to you." He stopped himself and addressed Luke himself. "Sorry, I almost forgot to address you, Luke. You helped your friend quite well at the tower."

I froze in dread. _Damn, this guy pays attention more than I thought. Maybe seeing us fighting at the tower has given Gregor enough hints to fight us with an advantage…_ I nodded to Luke and said, "Yeah, he's a great help. You can say 'hi' to him if you want, Luke."

"_Ok,"_ my friend thought timidly to me and waved at Gregor. _"Hi then. I guess you kind of picked out that I could talk already, right?"_

"Well when your friend asked for your opinion, it was hard not to. Well, not to mention that I saw you asking Utopia for help at the lake." The nerd replied pleasantly. His pleasantness wasn't at all comforting. In fact, I was feeling wary. _This guy might rival me in tactics._ Maybe this wasn't going to be an easy win… But I couldn't let Utopia know that. She still was confident in our winning and would put in her effort to win. Or at least last I checked…

Utopia, despite her prior enthusiasm, seemed to pick up on my dread. She gave me a grimace and said quietly, "Maybe he's smarter than we gave him credit for…" she looked concerned, her confidence faltering.

Gregor blinked in surprise and apologized, "Oh, I'm sorry, did I say something wrong? I don't mean to offend you in any way…"

"No, it's fine. Usually people don't tell that Luke's able to talk all that easily. But that's fine; you still won't be able to beat us in this challenge. Right, Utopia?" I said haughtily and crossed my arms. I then called out Archeops for show. Archeops emerged with a loud call and flapped his wings to be airborne. Hopefully his entrance was intimidating enough to encourage Utopia to not self-destruct.

She gulped and called out Pebbles for the match to start. Cliff, who had regained his breath, held up a flag and called out, "Let the match begin!"

_Offence means taking out the opponent as quickly as possible. _"Archeops, Ancient Power attack!" I commanded. My primary-colored bird summoned up boulders from the ground (much easier than he could do when he was an Archen) and sent them flying at both Sigilyth and Tranquill.

The boulders were disarmed promptly by Albert's Sigilyth's psychic attack. Tranquill, without any direction from its trainer, flew forward and ripped at Archeops with a ferocious attack, rivaling in power to Archeops's acrobatics attack. My fossil bird cried out in pain as the smaller bird (about twice as small) beat and scratched and tore feathers. Archeops retreated deeper into our territory and screeched angrily.

"What kind of attack was that?" I growled.

"I'm sorry, but this is a serious battle. Maybe I'll tell you my strategy afterwards." Gregor said kindly.

I grimaced and looked at Archeops. _Whatever that attack was, it was strong._ "Archeops, you ok?" I asked my starter Pokémon.

"Arc… cheops cheops!" he squawked back.

"_He said he's just a little shaken, nothing too bad."_ Luke thought to me. "_And that might have been a façade attack…"_

I thanked my friend for his help. "Great job, Luke." _If that was a façade attack, then it would be strong._ _And yet I would think that Archeops would have a better defense against a normal attack. Unless…_

Utopia ordered for Vullaby to fly forward and flatter Gregor's Tranquill.

_Unless… a façade worked best when the user was afflicted by a status condition…_ I glared at the grey and black bird dodging from Vullaby's attack. _Of course, after run-ins with Litwicks…_ "Utopia, change of tactics: defensive. We want this battle to drag out." I commanded. Then I noticed that the Sigilyth was making a break for our ring and swore. "Damn! Archeops, use dragon-breath!"

Utopia saw the charging Sigilyth as well and ordered her Vullaby to faint attack it. Vullaby disappeared into darkness and appeared quickly in front of Sigilyth, crashing into the painting-like Pokémon. Sigilyth winced and hastily flew back to its side of the ring.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Good work, Utopia." I gave Gregor a searching look and said carefully, "I never expected you to be a risk-taker. Façade is a strong attack, but you let your bird be wounded for its heightened effect?"

Utopia raised her eyebrows at me. Clearly she hadn't caught on to what Gregor was up to.

The nerd gave a small smile. "You're sharp. I look forward to a future battle between us two." He said modestly. "But even though I'm not a reckless fighter, my Tranquill is." His bird squawked appreciatively at that comment. "Your Archeops's acrobatics is no laughing matter either. In other words, Tranquill wanted his and your Archeops's power to be even. I have a feeling this will be an aggressive match."

Utopia gave me a confused and yet impressed look. _Yup, she was a little pathetic in strategy._ "So what now?" She asked.

"We stick with countering their attacks and learn their style." I said confidently. I glared at Gregor through the corner of my eye. This guy was good. And I had to agree, I would love to face him in a Pokémon battle. My battles so far had been half-hearted: Malcolm was an easy win, and Utopia got off easy. This guy could offer me a better match. However, he had six Pokémon (and was the only one in this competition that I could remember to have that many) and I had four. I could also guess that he wanted to fight with his entire team. Then again, a four-on-four would be fun too.

_No, five on five._ I'm pretty sure my Dad already sent the Pokémon. I could just imagine him being overjoyed to read my response to him and was eager to communicate. Furthermore, Gregor had a Fraxure. If the baby Axew accepted me as a trainer, then we could even have a dragon battle. Won't Utopia love that?

"Ok, let's continue this game. Tranquill, use façade again!"


	40. Rounds One and Two

**Utopia's POV**

_Façade?_ Obviously Tim had done his homework, because I totally forgot what special effect that attack had… But Tim did say that it was impaired somehow… I snapped back to attention to help out Tim. This challenge felt like I was going to have to work hard to win.

I could honestly say that I had never expected Gregor to attack like this. I mean, sure he was a genius that made a prototype of a dowsing machine and all that and was aspiring to be a gym leader, but I think Tim was actually a little wary of Gregor. Either Tim was losing confidence in himself (which wasn't really possible since he had a pretty big ego) or he was respecting Gregor for his skill. Gregor and Tim seemed like they were both tacticians, and that could only mean that this fight would be intense!

_Ugh, why do I keep spacing?_ I thought sadly and directed Pebbles to attack Tranquill with a fury attack. If Tranquill was impaired with something, then it would be best to take it down quickly. _Wait, this isn't a double battle, we want to grab the ring on the other side of the field… _But Pebbles wasn't very fast or agile, so making her sneak in wouldn't be smart. Archeops could pull it off with being hard to take down, but Tranquill was targeting Archeops. Then Sigilyth was idling by, waiting for us to forget about it to snag our ring._ This is tough… _I grimaced.

Pebbles flew forward and pecked at Tranquill, but the slightly larger bird flew out of the way after the first hit. Archeops summoned up another ancient power attack and targeted Tranquill. Just like last time, Sigilyth protected its ally with psychic and the boulders fell to the ground, hurting nothing. Tim swore under his breath.

"You can do it, Pebbles!" I encouraged her. "Faint attack Sigilyth! No wait!" I called out and grinned. "Faint attack to get around them."

Pebbles noticed the little plot and went for it. _Clever little vulture…_ She disappeared into shadow and reappeared close to the ring on Gregor's side. I love faint attack, it never ever misses!

"Gah!" Albert cried out as he saw Pebbles snatch up the ring in her beak and take to the sky. "They have our ring!"

Tim nodded to show his approval.

"Great job Pebbles!" I called out. "Now faint attack over here so you can't get attacked!"

Pebbles's (that's a weird word to think…) attack was executed perfectly and she landed on the ground, proudly sporting her stolen ring. I cheered and my confidence flew. "Amazing! That was amazing, Pebbles!" I cheered and scooped the baby vulture up in a hug. She surprisingly didn't peck at me, but seemed happy to be given appreciation.

"_That was a great idea, Utopia!"_ Luke thought while twirling in the air. _"I'd hate to be on the receiving end of that attack._"

"Vulla vullaby bee." The victorious vulture chirped.

"_Heh heh… your Pokémon is kind of… uh, grim…"_ Luke thought and shrank behind Tim.

I sighed and shook my head at the bird. "I hope you weren't threatening Luke. He's a friend, remember?"

"One point for DragonVow. Once the ring is returned round two will start." announced Cliff.

_Right, we still have two more points to get._ I set Pebbles back down on the ground and handed Gregor the stolen ring. I smiled to not offend him, but he didn't seem ticked in the slightest. The hero-nerd closed his eyes and gave me a gentle smile. "Good work, Utopia."

"Thanks." I replied. He was a very good sport for having been outfoxed by me so easily. Though I still wasn't one hundred percent sure of Gregor. After all, I still remembered him gagging me to catch a Pidove, what else had I underestimated about him?

Gregor took the ring and placed it back on their hook. Albert seemed to be a complete waste of space; he wasn't helping his teammate at all. All his Pokémon did was defending from ancient power and trying to get our ring. Besides that Tranquill was doing all the hard work.

"Round two begin." The mechanic called out and waved his flag like an official in a car race.

"We can't use the same trick twice, but keep Vullaby on Sigilyth to prevent its psychic attacks." Tim muttered to me and ordered Archeops, "Archeops, if Gregor wants to play hardball, let's give him an acrobatics." The dark-haired guy smiled in his usual snideness. He was serious about winning this game.

My thoughts floated back to the little crying fit I had earlier and my mind began to wander about Tim. Strangely he could be a little comforting… and I did tell him that I had never told anyone else (that I didn't know where I came from or really trust my parents). _Why did I do that? _And why did he feel bad for me when I was emotionally low? Somehow Tim could be a dark, coarse person with a soft side.

I face-palmed as Tim almost caught me staring at him. _Oh, Utopia, get a grip! Focus!_ "Pebbles, guard Sigilyth!" I called out. My vulture obeyed and fluttered proudly over (she still was very swag about her ring-steal) to face the painting-like Pokémon.

Archeops was high up in the air battling it out with Tranquill, both using their power acrobatics and façade attacks. They ripped at each other fiercely and feathers began to fly.

"So what's the plan then?" I asked my teammate.

He groaned for a little. "You really are pathetic, you know that?"

"Hey, that's not very nice to say to your** friend**!" I emphasized to remind him that I had shaken hands on the whole I-will-be-your-friend-even-though-it-means-my-life-is-in-danger deal.

Tim met my eyes and said degradingly, "I just told you the plan. Weren't you listening?"

I cracked a grin and admitted, "Sorry then, I guess I spaced back there…" I stopped myself and just realized that I had apologized to Tim. I had apologized to former emo and jerk. Ok, so he was a friend now, but still… I guess I had come a long way from hating his guts. I snapped out my spacy moment so that I wouldn't have to ask for the plan a third time.

Tim rolled his eyes and checked to see how Archeops was doing in the aerial battle. "I want to disable that Tranquill or at least disable the power of façade. It's heightened because Tranquill is burned and the longer this goes on the weaker Tranquil will be. You just have to worry about Sigilyth. Vullaby can use faint attack, but they probably will be expecting that same attack and have a counter attack. Got it now?"

I nodded slowly. "So-o-o-o… Pebbles defends?"

"Right." He said and turned back to Archeops. "Archeops, break away from Tranquill and get the ring."

The primary colored fossil bird, which looked pretty beaten from its tussle with Tranquill, suddenly dove down to the ground, targeting the ring. Albert squeaked in shock as their ring was threatened once again. The clown ordered for his Sigilyth to finally do something and defend the ring.

Pebbles cawed in pain and I snapped my focus back to her instead of at Archeops. My baby vulture was being brutally attacked by Gregor's Tranquill! I jumped and called out, "Pebbles, dodge with faint attack!"

I quickly glanced at what Archeops was doing to see if he got the ring yet, but Albert's Sigilyth had stopped the fossil bird with its psychic powers. Then the avianoid Pokémon threw Archeops in the psychic hold towards Pebbles. The fossil bird went reeling and slammed into the faint-attacking Vullaby. Both Tim's and my Pokémon were damaged and fell to the ground.

Our ring was open and vulnerable now! "Pebbles, get up!" I called desperately as Gregor's Tranquill zoomed past the two defending Pokémon for our ring. But it was no use, Archeops was too heavy for Pebbles to get out from under and the fossil bird was heavily wounded. Tranquill flitted over to our side and back, ring in its talons and completely unopposed.

That sort of easy victory got my blood boiling. It was almost that goal was a taunt of how easy we were to beat!

"One point for Team Specs! Once the ring is returned round three will start!" Cliff announced yet again. He elbowed Arnold and said loud enough for me to hear, "This is a much more exciting match."

Tim on the other hand walked up to his Archeops to check up on it. My anger evaporated and I joined him to see if Pebbles was badly hurt. The black-haired teammate of mine knelt and helped Archeops to its feet and inspected it. He patted the bird on the head and said, "That was clever of them but we can do better next round, right?"

"Cheops!" it agreed.

I smiled slightly and inspected the slightly bruised and clawed baby vulture. "You ok, Pebbles?" I asked as sweetly as I could muster.

"Vulla vull." The gothic chic replied and fluffed out her feathers.

"_She said that she's alright."_ Luke translated.

I looked up to see the ghost and smiled. "Thanks, Luke. You're a great help."

He smiled back. _"I try."_

Gregor held out the stolen ring back to me and said, "Now we're even. This is an exciting match."

Tim stood up and took the ring instead. He glared at the pleasant nerd witheringly. "Right, just you wait for the next round. You won't show me up that easily."

I giggled slightly. Tim did have a pretty big ego. He bragged of his own observation skills and now that Gregor was getting the better of him Tim felt defensive. It was kind of funny. And another thing, Gregor and Tim were both smart strategists, except that their personalities were polar opposites. It seemed that Tim was never happy and Gregor was never angry.

Albert smirked and walked up to the conversation. "Don't count on that. Gregor has seen your battling before and now it's owning time!" he clapped his younger teammate on the back in congrats. "Don't you realize now that Gregor and I let you get the first goal? You're done for now!"

Gregor sighed slightly. "We should act more sportsmanlike, Albert."

"Wait, are you saying that you two are just playing with us?" Tim's voice rose in anger.

"Hey hey!" I stood up and tried to break up a possible fight. "No verbal fighting, this is a Pokémon match of sorts. We settle this through the match." Once again Tim proved to have a flaring temper and I had to soothe things out.

Gregor held up his hands in an innocent gesture. "Good point, Utopia…" he seemed a little nervous and still his modest self.

However, Albert wasn't. The harlequin didn't seem to catch the drift and continued to talk about Gregor's skills to enrage Tim. "You should know that Gregor Niles here is a fantastic trainer. After all, he works best after seeing someone fight before him. Once he watches and learns he's unbeatable."

"And what does that leave you as, the cheerleader?" Tim chuckled darkly.

"Hey! You'll be sorry you said that after we whoop your butts!"

"Shut up and continue the match already!" I huffed. Sometimes trainers were nothing more than ten-year olds bickering over something trivial like a favorite cup to drink out of. Idiots…

The hero-nerd nodded and addressed his partner, "This isn't the time. Let's just leave it up to the game."

The clown frowned. "I don't get it, you're a good trainer and I have to toot your horn for you. Why do you have to be so modest? Come on, seriously."

"I don't need my horn tooted; I can let my tactics speak for themselves. It's my trainer way." He replied with a smile and called his Tranquill over. He patted the bird and inspected the slight burn on its breast. He frowned and asked his bird, "You can eat the berry now. You'll faint if you keep on going wounded like that."

"Tran tranquill quill." The bird puffed out its small chest in defiance.

"If you wish." Gregor shrugged and looked back at us. "Ready for the next round?"

Tim growled at Team Specs and marched back to replace the ring on our hook. I sighed happily to know that the fighting for the most part was over. I had to admit, Gregor was still his modest self and a thoughtful person. Then what was Albert's deal?

Luke floated by my head again but didn't say anything.

I smiled at the ghost and called to Pebbles to get ready for the next match. The baby vulture flapped in the air and chirped deeply, and then she landed on my shoulder the opposite side that Luke was.

I walked with the two Pokémon by my head back to where I was standing before to direct Pebbles to fight and steal the ring. I wasn't feeling all that beaten, even though this was our first loss Pokémon wise as a team. I mean, so far our Pokémon had worked flawlessly and now Gregor had bested us. Tim sure was pretty steamed about it, but I still held a little hope of winning. After all, we did have one point, and that meant that they weren't completely unbeatable.

Tim joined me at the middle of the field and gave me a grim frown. "The first one to three wins and I have a bad feeling that Gregor knows more than he's letting on. We have to try our hardest, let Pebbles know that."

"You got all of that?" I asked the vulture perching on my shoulder.

She gripped her claws tighter in my shoulder, making me flinch from the pain. "Vulla vull Vullaby bee." She chirped.

"Care to translate?" I asked Luke apologetically.

The little ghost nodded. _"She understands."_

"Good. Who's a good little Vullaby? You are." I cooed to the vulture on my shoulder.

"Vull vully vull…"

"_She doesn't want to be babied… she also threatened your family…"_ Luke translated once again. "_I have to say it again; your Pokémon is very grim…"_ he smiled nervously. _"I wouldn't trust her when you are sleeping… but that's just me."_

"Hello?" Arnold called out again. "If you two don't start the match I'll do it for you. You're as chatty as our first group."

I looked at my bird with slight apprehension. I had never thought of a Pokémon being as evil enough to think of killing its trainer in the night, thought I strangely wouldn't put it past Pebbles. _You're sleeping in the Pokéball tonight, hun!_ "Fine, be the evil dark-type you are… Just fight and follow my and Tim's directions, Then you'll be fine." I petted the vulture's head and sent her a forced smile.

"Vull…" Pebbles chirped and flew to her position by Archeops. Hopefully we were ready for round three. Archeops looked like it had sustained much injury from Tranquill's façade attack. _Could we pull off a win this time? After all, Albert the clown said that they let us get the first point. What if they already knew our fighting pattern and were about to smash us?_

"Ready now?" the hero-nerd asked politely.

"Yep!" I answered. My teammate nodded as well.

"Ok, round three begins now!" Cliff announced with a wave of his flag.

"Faint attack on Sigilyth, Pebbles!" I called out quickly. Oh yes, I was going to try my **very** hardest.


	41. Victory For Them

**A/N: I've been off this story for a while for a while. But don't worry; I haven't given up on it. Also, a fourth perspective will be introduced in the cast of characters. **

**Gregor's POV**

Faint attack never misses. The Vullaby daringly threw herself at our team's Sigilyth and sent it back a few feet from the force of the attack. I expected as much.

"Tranquill, use roost." I said with a small grin. I had planned far in advance or the combination of façade and roost attacks, if I don't mind bragging. My Tranquill was a hardy bird and usually ended up knocking himself out. My solution to counter this was his roost attack. After Tranquill had regained half of his health I couldn't help but crack a smile at Tim's expression. He looked absolutely infuriated. I explained helpfully to the dark-haired man, "I'm sorry, but I counted on this being a long match."

"You…!" Tim growled. He directed his fossil at my smaller bird in a predictable acrobatics attack.

"I'll get this." Albert called out with gusto and directed his Sigilyth to attack with a psychic attack to stop it.

Utopia sent Vullaby back out to counter the psychic, just as I could expect. _But what to do with this pattern? _I mused. _I've seen their style enough to know it and a basic countering to it._

The exchange of blows ended with both sides relatively unhurt, even though Tranquill was constantly wounded by his burn. I smiled kindly to the team and said, "You weren't lying when you said you trained well together, Utopia. Your Pokémon complement each other well."

My partner turned to me and gave me a critical look. "We're trying to beat them in a game and you compliment them?"

I nodded, still showing my modesty and pleasantness. "I give them credit when it is due." I turned back to the team and continued, "Thanks for such a great opportunity to combat you."

"Wait, what?" Utopia asked. "You're acting like it's over."

"Don't tell me that you're forfeiting…" Albert gave me a critical look.

I shook my head to him. "Tranquill, aerial ace." I commanded. _Sorry, but you two won't stand a chance._

My bird launched high in the air and moved so fast that he became almost invisible. Then with a ferocity that I thought uncalled for, he struck Vullaby hard with his claws. Then just as quickly he used the same attack to fly past the slower Archeops for the ring.

"No you don't!" Tim growled. "Ancient power!" His bird obediently summoned up boulders to throw at Tranquill, but my bird was fast enough to dodge with ring in beak.

_That's the last ancient power attack he can use._ I nodded to myself. Ancient power could only be used five times, unless enhanced by tough training or PP up. Then again, Tim was an archeologist type person so I wouldn't be surprised if he had found one of those things. _Ok, I'll see if he uses the attack again to make sure. If he is out, then it'll be all the more easier to win_. I decided.

Tranquill returned to our side haughtily, puffing out his breast and strutting around with the ring. I sweat dropped and took the ring from him. I patted my bird on the head and handed the ring back to Team DragonVow. Again, I had to say I liked the name of their team.

Tim glared at me and refused to take the ring, as if he was that enraged at me. Utopia walked forward and took the ring hesitantly. She met my gaze and said, "Well, I guess you do have skill…"

"Sorry about Tranquill attacking Vullaby so brutally. Is she still ok?" I asked. I did really care about her Pokémon even if it was against the rules of the game or my Pokémon's personality. Maybe it was the gentleman inside me being courteous to ladies.

The dark-haired girl nodded. "Yeah, she's still able to fight." But I could tell her resolve was wavering.

It made me sad to see that she was sad and almost ready to give up. It made me want to go easy on her, but Albert and Tranquill wouldn't have it. I nodded back and said with a kind look. "Fight your best, that's all that counts."

Tim called her back to his side for a little conference of sorts. That guy wasn't one to give up easily. I still could see a battle between him and I turn out to be brilliant. I went back to my side with my partner that I didn't exactly get along with. Oh well, I was committed to this overall Skyla's contest, so I promised myself to make the best of things. Albert reminded me of a card dealer of sorts; he always seems to have a trick up his sleeve and he gave me nervous vibes.

"Great slip! Now we only need to get one more point to beat them!" the clown said with a grin and slight cackle, another reason I felt apprehensions about him.

I nodded but replied modestly, "They may get a good plan. Who knows?" I hated the thought of becoming cocky and over confident. It would be much more painful if a haughty person lost than a humble one.

"Round Four! Match point." Cliff yelled as the referee.

"Right, let's get this over with." My partner announced. "Sigilyth, use psychic on Archeops!"

I mentally face palmed. _They've already seen that attack, we need to keep them guessing… But I guess I can work with him… _

"Pebbles, use flatter on Tranquill again!" Utopia called.

I remembered flatter's power back at the target smash and didn't want to get mixed up in that, especially since Tranquill was already wounded and steadily losing health. It was a good move on their part, if I wasn't a tactician. "Taunt first!" I cried out.

My bird thankfully was quick enough to puff out its chest and crow like a rooster before Vullaby could appreciate his skills. And that was all Vullaby needed: a taunt. She forgot about flattering the bird and charged forward, giving Tranquill a pecking to remember. Maybe taunt wasn't the best when dealing with a vulture that wore other Pokémon's bones…

Meanwhile, Sigilyth's attack had missed and was defending our side from the enraged fossil bird. With both our birds under attack, it seemed unlikely for us to score a final point. However, Team DragonVow was dealing with me.

"Tranquill, aerial ace!" I shouted, my emotions getting the better of my voice. I was excited, what could I say?

Tranquill spun high into the air, disengaging himself from the furious Vullaby and diving towards their goal again so quickly that Tim could barely direct his Pokémon in time to counter. However, his cleverness was still equal to my own.

"Archeops, use dragon breath!" He commanded, his voice higher pitch with adrenaline.

His Pokémon obeyed as quickly as it could and before Tranquill could make it to our side of the ring, the dragon breath attack knocked Tranquill of course and the ring fell to the ground. _So close._ I thought mildly.

Round four continued, tensions building on both sides. Albert and I wanted to win to go on with the challenges (since we had had such a terrible start to the whole thing), and Tim and Utopia were going to defend with all of their might. Maybe they still wanted to drag out the battle because of Tranquill's burn, but roost was going to delay it. _I might even have Tranquill use another roost to boost his power and health. Yes, the four moves Tranquill used were still good: façade, aerial ace, taunt, and roost. I almost wished that I could show off my other Pokémon right now. I bet Fraxure would be smashing. Oh, right… Utopia doesn't like dragons… I'll be courteous and refrain as best I can about Fraxure being around her then_.

"Sigilyth! Air cutter!" Albert called out and winked at me, showing that this was our final blow.

With air cutter hitting both Vullaby and Archeops, Tranquill sailed over the two Pokémon to get the ring again. Try as they might, Vullaby and Archeops couldn't get away from the constant air cutter Sigilyth dished out, and soon Tranquill perched on my arm with the ring in beak once more.

It took a second for Team DragonVow, much less the Gym trainers Cliff and Arnold, to realize what happened. Then Utopia heaved a sigh while Albert leapt for joy. I took the ring from my bird's beak and walked back to the boundary. When neither Tim nor Utopia walked up to retrieve it, I walked over myself and held out the ring to the dark Tim. He looked infuriated if not murderous.

But I didn't show any fear. My friend Chad had taught Bob and I (as the geeks of school) to show no fear and we wouldn't get picked on. I smiled modestly and held out the ring again. "That was a good match. I confess, watching you at the tower already gave me a leg up. Perhaps next time you will be ready for my style next time."

The black-haired Tim frowned and took the ring. He was certainly a sore loser. He looked at his fossil bird and said, "Ok, I guess you are pretty good…"

I was a little shocked at his slow acknowledgement of my team winning. Utopia, however, came up and said with a small and sad smile on her face, "It's just that Tim and I haven't lost a challenge since we started. Now we lost to you."

"So your morale and confidence slipped a little?" I nodded and tried to say in the nicest way possible, "But don't be down, everyone fails at something. I'm sorry, but I don't know how to put it softly. You win, you lose, it's part of life." I ended with my returning my not-very-helpfully taunting bird back to his Pokéball. "Chin up."

Utopia nodded slowly. "I guess so."

The trainer Cliff came up to me (I guess he assumed that I was the leader of the group, which was more or less true) and said, "Good work, Team Specs. I would say go on to the next challenge, but it's time to get to dinner with Skyla. She just sent a text now for everyone to finish up their work."

I frowned lightly. "But Albert and I still have another task…"

"The goal today was to do as much as you could for the time given." The mechanic pointed to Tim and Utopia and said appreciatively, "If these two had won, then they would have been the first team to have completed the entire run. But past is past." The man nodded and pointed to Arnold already taking down the ring stands and balloons. "Arnold and I will take care of the set up; both teams can head back to the Pokémon Center for food and chatting."

I nodded. "Thank you, Mr. Cliff." I sent a smile to Utopia and said, "I trust we can still be friends even after this challenge? It was just a game anyways."

The Asian girl nodded resolutely and returned her vulture. She stood straighter and replied, "Yes, Pidove Pal, we're still friends. So let's eat."

Tim was in a brooding mood and returned his fossil bird without a word or look at me. Albert continued to make the atmosphere tense by cheering my skills and our teamwork on.

And after a slightly uncomfortable and unfavorable walk through the woods, the four humans and Luke the Yamask ended back in the red-roofed Pokémon center. I was slightly glad for the break of running through games for the Gym Challenge and was looking forward to hearing things from the other trainers. I mean, Bob and Chad had already flunked out of the challenge thus far, so I had to kind of find people to hang around with until either I quit or I win. So far Utopia seemed to be good company and I respected Tim's skill. Maybe that famous red-head Malcolm would be a good companion as well.

We turned in our Pokémon to be healed, well, for the most part. Luke the Yamask remained out of his Pokéball and I kept one of my Pokémon to join at the food. I couldn't let my Gothorita Raven miss out on the fun.

Then the four of us trainers went down the stairs to gather at the largest table. Tim continued to shun me, Utopia was trying to be friendly while hiding her disappointment, and Albert was being rather insensitive; ranting about how epic of a battle we had. Team DragonVow sat down and Albert took a further chair from them. I grimaced and sat down next to Utopia instead of Albert. Did I mention that I still had apprehensions about him?

After a little silence, I took out my reserved Pokéball and said agreeably, "Would you like to meet one of my Pokémon?" Utopia gave me a strained look and I insisted that it wasn't my dragon. She agreed to see my Pokémon and I called out Raven from her Pokéball. It's said that Gothoritas hypnotize people and are astrologers, but my Raven wasn't. She was a pretty Pokémon that had a nature contrary to her gothic look; a sunny personality. She usually liked to hold flowers and hum to herself.

Raven was greeted by Luke and they talked with each other a touch before the ghost nodded to his owner/friend. Raven smiled at me and greeted Utopia. "Goth-goth ori rita."

"Funny, she said 'ori', as in my friend from Lacunosa." The girl mused and patted the black human-like Pokémon on the head. "And good thing I don't think I'm allergic to her like your Purrloin."

"But you have your birthday present, so that should be cleared up." I said with a small grin and closed eyes. I still think that my gift of allergy medicine was a nice and practical gift for her to use.

"Right." Utopia smiled gently. She was acting friendlier, which I took as a good sign that her loss was taken easier. Tim was still silent and moody, not bothering to give anyone else attention other than his Pokémon.

Soon Skyla and the other three teams arrived and the meal was started. Malcolm, the obvious extrovert, began to talk all about his endeavors with his partner, but he cut himself short when he realized that a more important story was to be told; Utopia's encounter with a legendary Pokémon. I could still scarcely believe it, so when Malcolm asked Utopia to tell, I leaned a little closer with attention.

Utopia seemed nervous at all the attention she was getting and became shy. "Oh, well you see… um, the wind storm earlier today was caused by Tornadus…"

"Tornadus? But Hess tamed it a while back!" Malcolm protested/wondered to himself. "What happened to Hess that Tornadus is causing trouble again?"

"I don't know… but Tornadus I guess decided to attack me and hold me in a tornado for a bit until my partner and… er, his Yamask saved me." Utopia stammered, face flushing slightly.

The trainers, me included, all looked at Tim expectantly to hear all about how he fought off a Tornadus. The dark young man glared and said simply, "If you know about Yamask abilities, you'd know how we got rid of it."

The red-head Malcolm frowned in concentration to come up with the answer. He was from an influential Pokémon researching family after all. Though, I think I remembered something special about Yamask masks… though I couldn't express it in words. Finally the famous Kwester said, "You mean the thing about its mask and possessing people and Pokémon?"

"He's a **he**, not and it." Tim replied darkly and yet calmly.

"But am I right?" the other asked, showing a little of his annoyance with the dark Tim in his expression.

Tim nodded and returned to his dark brooding.

The table began to buzz with people talking about the strange occurrence of a legendary Pokémon in these parts and what it could mean, along with speculations of what a Yamask could do and thoughts about finding and capturing one for their team of Pokémon. Skyla began to talk about the flying-type Pokémon of Unova in as much detail as she could, though she didn't know very much by memory. The matter over defending from a future attack was waved off and the conversation went to less important matters, such as things about flying Pokémon and airplanes and the challenges. I fed Raven the Gothorita some of my food throughout the entire conversation.

The conversation was coming to a close and the red-haired leader sent a question around the table to better understand our personalities. "So, what is everyone's favorite TV show? Start with Guy Fellow."

Guy said that he mainly watched music videos and movies about dancing to get ideas to perfect his moves.

The question continued to Ouri, the green haired friend of Utopia. Ouri said he liked to watch the news.

Pavel quickly answered that he rarely watched TV.

Dan insisted that cartoons were his favorite, but they had to be from the cartoon station he preferred or they weren't any good. He also mentioned that he liked the cartoons with violence in them.

Albert replied that he didn't watch TV.

Malcolm announced happily that he liked discovery, history, food, travel, and PBS stations and not any one show in particular.

Archie was up next and mentioned his like for international channels and shows.

I said that I liked the inventive shows, like the myth testing shows or things like that. I was kind of boring in my taste of TV, but I didn't want to lie and try to portray and different sort of me for them. I'm Gregor, and that's all I need to say.

Utopia said she didn't watch much TV and Tim agreed.

And that was the end of the circle. Skyla seemed pleased and said, "Ok, thanks for that. The plan for tomorrow is people interaction. It sounds harder than it is, so I'll just let you sit with that. I'm going to let you all sleep in a little longer since tomorrow is Saturday and all, and Sunday will be a break day. You are free to do what you want now." she smiled and exited, leaving us trainers to continue talking or to go our separate ways.

Utopia decided to break away from some needed sleep and the rest of us seemed to follow suit in leaving the basement and heading up to the rooms. I wasn't tired in the least however, and decided to hang out in the Pokémon Center lobby as an excuse to stay away from Albert for a little. Raven sat by me, searching for a shred of joy to flaunt.

I let my gaze wander; giving my mind a rest after the mind-engaging battles and games of earlier. It takes quite the brain power to add up clues to combat in a match, so a little brain drain is always in order afterwards.

However, I didn't have a lot of time to brain dump, since Tim walked up into my line of vision and accessed the transportation system on the PC in the corner. I decided to watch the grim teen to figure out more about this guy. I admired his tact and still felt that I had an unfair advantage on our match of the strange PokéRinger event.

Tim, along with his ever present Yamask friend, fired up the machine and began to work on something with his back turned to me.

I shrugged and looked at my Pokémon. _I guess Tim has a strong bond with his Yamask friend. He can talk through thought, that much I know. I wonder if I knew Raven's talking if I would become very close friends with her._ My thoughts went back to Tim as he pulled something out of the teleporter. A largely white Pokéball was now in his hand.

The dark (in nature) teen released the button on the sphere and a Pokémon emerged, taking the familiar shape of a small Axew. My eyes widened in pleasant surprise. Tim has a fifth Pokémon? _An Axew at that too. I wonder if Fraxure would like it._ I stood up quietly and decided to casually ask about the Pokémon. Tim still didn't like me for showing him up, so I wouldn't be the best person to talk to. But still…

Tim frowned at his Yamask and asked, "What? No…" He glared at the baby dragon and sighed. "My team was so uniform…"

I walked up to him and held out Fraxure's Pokéball. "You have an Axew? Can my Pokémon meet it?" I said with as much friendliness as I could muster.

Tim whipped around and glared at me. "I'm thinking of switching out; don't make her feel welcome yet…"

I raised an eyebrow at that. "Pardon?"

The Yamask explained through my mind, _"Well, Tim wanted a boy Axew, but that's a girl… and since she was a gift Tim's considering asking for a boy."_

I was surprised. Not only was this Yamask quite frank, but a trainer that was that picky on Pokémon gender? "Oh?"

"I swear Luke…" Tim growled.

I crouched down and extended my hand to the small Axew. "She looks like a pretty good Pokémon. Where'd you get her?" I wanted to show off a little of my Axew know-how, but wasn't sure if I should start getting the baby used to its new master or friends.

"My father's friend. And why are you so interested?"

He was a suspicious one, I'd grant him that. "I've raised an Axew to a Fraxure, I know a little about the species." I smiled up at the looming Tim. "So, may I ask what the occasion for a new Pokémon is?"

"No you may not." Tim huffed and scooped up the Axew around the belly. "It's my business."

I stood back up and shrugged. "Ok, I don't mean to get you angry." I said pleasantly and waved my hand. "I'll leave you to your Pokémon then." _Was it coincidence that his partner was afraid of Dragon Pokémon?_


	42. Dragon Immersion

**Pokémon Mistalton42**

**Tim's POV**

The next morning was a groggy one at that. I had stayed up too late the previous night and I ended up sleeping in a little late. I still hadn't decided last night about the fate of the girl Axew now in my party. Sure I wanted a dragon to get my teammate used to dragons with the immersion method of sorts… but a girl Axew?

I had all male or genderless Pokémon and I liked the uniformity. However, Luke seemed to like the little dragon and argued with me about keeping her and said that she already marked me as her trainer. The night hadn't solved anything and I was left with the dilemma in the morning.

I sighed and began to get ready for the day while thinking over the matter of the Axew. I really didn't see any sort of compromise available either. It was either accept the female dragon or give her back for a male. I had made sure to keep her in the Pokéball so my judgment couldn't be influenced by her cute little stare.

Luke hovered up by me and gave me an expectant look, saying that if I wasn't going to agree with him he'd pester me again about the whole issue of rejecting the baby and possibly mentally scarring a baby Pokémon for all of her life. He knew how to argue with some things, and when he knew how to argue he did it well.

I finished my morning routine and glared at Luke. "Are you going to tell me a sob story if I reject the Axew I got?"

"_That or remind you that the e-mail said that she's the best fit of the litter. She's the oldest and any other Axew would be hard to take on in your team… and she's a gift, so there's no reason to be irked about something that was free. I could even say how hard it is to find an Axew in the wild-"_

I sighed heavily. "Sometimes I hate you…"

"_When you don't agree with me and hate my reasoning." _The ghost of my childhood friend thought with a grin. _"So… what's the verdict?"_

I glowered at him. I hated disrupting my own team with a female Axew; pretty much all of the similarities between other teammates were broken with her. _But I did say I wanted an Axew and she was a gift from a family friend…_ the persuasive powers of Luke were getting through to me. "Fine… Now all we have to do is figure out a way to get Utopia used to dragons…"

"_So you __**are **__accepting her. The Axew I mean. Will you give her a name?"_ He thought quickly, making a bigger deal over the decision than I wanted.

"Maybe…" I said carefully.

"_What about Tatha?"_

"Who?"

"_A name for her."_

"Oh… no, that doesn't fit." I shook my head. "How about I name her after I introduce her to Utopia?"

"_That doesn't work. You have to give her a cute name and coax Utopia to grow to like the Axew. How about Candy?"_

"I don't have any-" I stopped myself from sounding dumb and corrected myself, "No, I don't like the name Candy."

"_Something cute and huggable, like Bunny or Honey…"_ Luke thought while twirling in the air.

I sighed and reminded him, "You know I don't like to name Pokémon all that much."

"_And a cute nickname will warm Utopia up to dragons. I like the name Poppy."_

I groaned. This whole naming business was even more annoying than the decision to keep the Pokémon in the first place. Luke did have a point, but I hated the thought of calling out the Axew to a cutesy name. I could just imagine calling out the cheesy name and hearing laughs from my imaginary opponent at the nickname. "What about asking the Pokémon herself?" I compromised.

Luke stopped in mid-spin and agreed readily. _"Why didn't I think of that before? Great idea!"_

I pulled out the premier ball out and opened the sphere with a flash of red. The small dragon in question materialized and let out a timid little cry. Luke wasted no time in floating to her face and asking in Pokéspeak something about the business of her name.

"Ya Yamask mask-mask Yamask ya."

"Ax-ax-axew."

"Mask maya yask mask."

"Xew?"

"Ya-ya-ya mask."

"Axew axew…"

Luke turned to me and said, _"She's pretty loyal to people so she'll take her name from you."_

I rolled my eyes. _Seriously, this was only a __**little**__ detail in my plan to help Utopia. Why was it so annoying? _Then I came up with a name both Luke and I could agree on. "Ok, if you want to give her a name we'll call her Nessa."

Luke seemed to solemn up a bit, and then nodded. "Ok, Nessa or Nessy will work great for her."

It was agreed that Nessa the Axew now had a name cute enough to entreat a scared dragon-fearing teammate and the name was not going to be ridiculous when she grew up. I could actually live with that nickname even though I hated naming Pokémon. I needn't go into the meaning Luke and I held for that name. That was to be kept between us. Although, if my luck prevailed, Utopia might get the courage to ask. "Ok, that's cleared up, how should we try to convince Utopia that Nessa is nice? We need to plan this out in advance so we can be convincing enough. Maybe it could be later today after whatever people relations are supposed to consist of."

"_Yeah, I have a feeling that scaring her in front of others wouldn't be a good idea."_ My ghost friend agreed.

"Then she goes back in the ball until we are ready." I replied and returned the timid baby back to her premier ball. Things could look up even though we had lost a match yesterday to Gregor. It still bothered me that Utopia and my teamwork failed against that nerd, but I had let it go. I could move on and fight another day. _And next time I will be ready to fight Gregor._

A rapt was heard on my door and I went to the peep hole to see who in Mistralton was daring to call me out of my room. As expected, Malcolm the somewhat-famous was waiting at my door. I don't know how I expected it, other than the hint that someone I didn't like was on the other side of the door and was seeking to annoy me. I have that kind of sixth sense of knowing when someone annoying is close. Ok, I kid about that, but still…

I opened the door slowly and sent the red-head a glare. "What do you want?"

"Good morning. I just wanted to make sure you weren't sleeping in. Everyone else has left their rooms to get breakfast already." He said in a sickenly friendly voice. _Wasn't that a rule that Utopia had asked him to keep: to leave me some breathing space?_ After all of his success with the challenges yesterday he probably felt like spreading the cheer.

"Well I'll be down in a sec."

"How's the challenge? You still feeling confident? I'm beginning to have my doubts…" he ranted on as if the whole world needed to know his thoughts.

I pushed the door open and brushed past him, being careful to close the door behind me.

Malcolm protested (as expected) at my brushing him off and followed me on my way to the basement, chatting all the way about how discourteous I was acting and the like. I didn't really care so I tuned him out. I did double-check on Luke to see that my friend was in fact following me. He was and I felt comfortable.

"Hey, are you ever going to start treating others nicely?" Malcolm protested as I reached the main floor.

I ignored him once more and noticed that Utopia, Gregor Niles, and Ouri Greene were all talking together in the lobby instead of eating breakfast. My teammate waved to me and addressed both Malcolm and I.

"Hi, good morning."

"Hi." I said back.

Gregor sent me a friendly smile, a kind of tolerable smile unlike Malcolm's forced friendliness. "Nice to see everyone up and ready. We were just talking about our teammates." He said. If Malcolm had said the same thing I would have glared and tried to avoid him. However, this was Gregor; a tactician that had bested me. If I listened carefully to him I might be able to deduct some things about him and find a weakness of his. The nerd continued pleasantly, "Utopia regards you very highly."

My Asian teammate seemed a little embarrassed at her own compliments of me and blushed slightly.

"I've got a pretty awesome teammate too." Malcolm just had to enter in the conversation. The proud red-head continued importantly, "Archie is from Sinnoh and he has won eight badges from the Sinnoh league. With our power combined we can beat anyone!"

"Just try a Sky Drop attack." I muttered with a smirk.

Malcolm was ticked at that and wheeled on me. But before he could give me a verbal lashing, Ouri stepped in to try to keep the peace. The guitarist held up his hands and said, "Hey, no need to be rough."

I glared at Malcolm and he glared back, but nothing more happened. I still loathed the guy.

"I was just talking about Guy Fellow, my teammate. Actually, his name isn't Guy, it's his middle name. His real name is Raymond and he was a dancer in Castelia. He even got the privilege to battle that famos guy called Black. Talk about lucky!" Ouri continued with a grin.

_And this was important… why?_ I acted like I was interested and looked at Utopia. "So, did you already eat breakfast?"

She shook her head. "Nope." She paused and asked with a small grin, "So, you ready for this vague people interaction assignment?"

"Ready? Of course I'm ready." I replied_. How could I not be ready for something that sounded relatively simple? _

Just at that moment a Pokémon of mine decided that it wanted out. A flash of red revealed that my newest team member had conveniently decided that she wanted out. Nessa the Axew chirped happily to the group of people.

Several things happened at the same time. I frowned at the early reveal of my Pokémon and felt like scolding the dragon. Utopia, seeing the dragon, stared and her face paled in a matter of a second. She screeched and jumped back, hiding behind Gregor. Ouri had the same reaction, though a second or two delayed. Gregor grinned at the dragon before he became a shield for the Lacunosa kids. And Malcolm simply announced happily that he liked the Pokémon, and then became concerned for Utopia's reaction.

"WHA?" Utopia shrieked and cowered behind the nerd. She shook and slowly sank to her knees from shock. I mentally face-palmed at the extent of the phobia I had to help her out of.

"You monster!" Ouri protested, but seemed to be trying to act more like a man about it, meaning his voice didn't rise as high as his friend's.

"You kept her?" Gregor smiled. Then he turned to the two behind him and asked what Malcolm asked as well, "What's wrong?"

Malcolm stormed forward and pushed his finger into my chest. "What's the big idea? Did you know that that Pokémon is scaring her?" he growled, obviously showing his like for Utopia.

I returned the now embarrassed and shy Axew back to her Pokéball to calm both Lacunosa residents and to stop any possible people from staring at the confrontation. Utopia didn't relax after Nessa was returned however.

I faced Malcolm and said levelly, "Look, I know what I'm doing."

"You are disgusting, you know that? Getting a Pokémon your teammate is scared of. You're lower and slimier than I thought!" the red head announced. His volume was probably to make sure Utopia heard that he was standing up for her.

No matter how well I was able to shrug off insults, this one sort of stung. I hid it as usual, but I could tell that those words would bother me for a while.

"_Nessa thought that her cue to come out was the phrase 'I'm ready'. That's why she jumped out. She might need some encouragement and explanation later…"_ Luke thought to me.

"Thanks but I'm sorting through other things right now." I said accidentally out loud. I groaned. This was not a great start to the day at all. I tried to make eye contact with Utopia, but she was talking with Ouri, probably talking about the evils of dragon Pokémon and how disgusting I was to adopt a dragon just for that purpose. I wanted to tell Utopia that this was going to help her phobia and that I was going to help her, but she was treating me like a dragon.

Gregor looked at Ouri and Utopia, then to me. "I'm glad you decided to keep your gift. But there seems to be something I don't understand. Did you get the dragon even though your partner is afraid of dragons and with full knowledge of that fact?"

If I answered that I would condemn myself for life in front of these contestants. But if I told a lie Utopia would tell the truth anyways. It was a lose-lose choice. "Yes, but-"

"I knew you were nothing but a scumbag!" Malcolm raged. But instead of going after me, he went to Utopia and hugged her, offering his comfort from me: the big bad Tim.

_Well that was the icing on the cake of my mess up. Right there_. The pseudo-famous person that I didn't get along with at all was comforting my partner (and my friend) and shielding her from me. That made me either want to get extremely angry or to sulk. _Maybe this whole Axew thing was a bad idea. And I've messed up the whole introducing nicely thing. I'll be lucky if Utopia even talks to me…_ I thought moodily.

Luke sensed my mood and sank a little.

Ouri and Malcolm seemed to take Utopia's side on the whole being scared of my newest Pokémon and were trying to comfort her.

My partner finally met my eyes, which sent chills through me. Utopia's eyes, which were strangely scared and nearly hollow with shock, seemed to pierce me with a plaintive 'why?'. She continued her eerie stare and I quickly looked away. That look had told me that my whole plan of curing her phobia was a lost cause. She now resented me for it and might not ever forgive me.

"I think there's a slight misunderstanding in motives."

I looked up to see the nerdy and yet level-headed nerd speaking up. Gregor adjusted his glasses and said with a kind smile that never seemed to leave him, "It seems to me that Tim's motives are purer than you might see them."

I gave Gregor a searching stare. _Since… what?_ I looked at Luke to see if he had any part in this, but my ghost friend shook his head.

"Don't be so condescending. Just ask what Tim wanted to accomplish with an Axew. I'm sure it wasn't purely to terrorize his partner." Gregor finished with his typical smile.

Malcolm, Ouri, and Utopia seemed to trust Gregor enough to give me a second chance. While still comforting my scared partner, Malcolm glared and asked in a low and dangerous voice, "So, why did you get a dragon in your team when you knew full well that Utopia is scared to death of them?"

I felt my confidence return very slightly. "I just want to help…" I met Utopia's eye and said quickly, "I promised."

"You think that **that** would help-?" Malcolm defended.

I shrugged. My fighting spirit wasn't all that empowered. I could barely persuade myself that this had been a good idea.

"One thing you should know about our fear of dragons; it won't go away that easily. You can't just get a little Axew and expect our hard-wired fear to disappear." Ouri said with a hint of offence to his tone. "We fear dragons because Kyurem would stalk our home and would gobble up anyone who was out at night. That fear can't be remedied."

Utopia still hadn't said anything since Nessa thought she was needed. Instead she seemed quite content to be reassured by Malcolm that she wasn't going to be in danger. I couldn't explain myself to her with all of these other people around. I wanted to talk to her alone… _that is, if she trusted me anymore_. That thought sobered me up and made my pessimism escalade.

"Look, it was bad timing. Sorry." I apologized painfully.

"You'd better be." Malcolm glared.

"Not helping." Gregor soothed. "Can't we work this out over breakfast? Besides, we have an assignment by our future boss." I was surprised at Gregor's involvement in this whole thing and his taking my side in the whole scaring of Utopia. Strangely he was being a peace-keeper when Utopia couldn't. _But why was he being so kind? What was going on in his tactician head?_ The nerd nodded at me and said in a quieter tone, "If you don't mind, I'd like to see your Axew a little more closely. Maybe my Fraxture will get along with your Pokémon."

"Why are you so interested in my Axew?" I droned unhappily.

"No one else I've met has an Axew. I'm a slight fan of the species." He said with his friendly demeanor. Again, I could stand Gregor's friendliness compared to Malcolm's.

Breakfast ended up being the ten trainers and the five gym trainers. Skyla was off on another errand of sorts and couldn't make it to give us instructions.

And everyone saw the change in seating and were wondering what had happened (well, that's what I thought). Malcolm and Ouri were sitting on either side of Utopia, blocking her from me. And I sat next to Gregor and Guy Fellow. In fact, the only teammates that were sitting next to each other were Archie and Malcolm. But my separation from my partner had to be more noticeable since she wasn't looking at me and her bodyguards were still eyeing me angrily. Well, they had a point. I mean, with Utopia being the only girl in the competition, she probably got more attention than the rest of the trainers.

Cliff, Brady, the plane-obsessed Ted, Arnold, and Chase all waited until we were all done eating before giving the info on our next little challenge. In fact, I was almost getting tired of getting useless contests. Cliff, the senior Gym Trainer, announced, "Well, a good morning to you all. It's a nice Saturday and Sunday will be a day off. Today your assignment is for your teams to go around the town and to meet the people living here."

I raised my eyebrows cynically. _They want us to what?_

"A part of being in a gym is getting to know the town you work in. Skyla makes it a point of hers to meet and interact with many of the residents here to make sure she does all she can as a leader to make life in Mistralton enjoyable. Your assignment is to meet people here and do odd jobs for them."

_Oh Landorus_. I felt like adopting Utopia's curse for this occasion. _I hate this sort of work…_


	43. New Teammate for the Day

**Utopia's POV**

I didn't really hear much of Cliff's speech about our task. Whatever it was I didn't really care. All that I could think about was that Tim was serious about his promise and I had to work with him and possibly his new Pokémon all day today. My stomach flip-flopped and I felt sick. Well what would you feel if you hated bug Pokémon and your friend captured one just to scare you?

I didn't want to do anything with Tim today. I just didn't. He had my worst fear in a little fragile Pokéball, ready to pounce when it wanted. I didn't care how much he would try to change my mind about dragons; I wasn't going to ever lose my fear of them. I simply couldn't!

Malcolm put his hand on my shoulder, a strange comforting action, and said, "Looks like we have to split up in our teams again."

I whispered, "But-"

"I know. I don't trust that guy. Maybe I can talk Cliff into letting me switch with Tim for today." He rubbed my back a little for comfort and added, "I know that I would never get your worst fear in my team of Pokémon. What Tim did was just wrong."

I agreed there. Sure he had said that he would help me with my phobia before this, but this seemed way too forceful. I mean, he got a dragon just so that he could try to get me used to them. That was devotion right there, but I couldn't deal with the thought of a dragon in his team. If we had to double battle I could just imagine jumping and running away if he ever pulled out that monster.

I didn't really object to Malcolm's comfort either. Strange enough, I was kind of happy to get some human sympathy instead of crying and moping to Len the Palpitoad. And somehow Malcolm offered safety and refuge from the danger Tim had presented. I wished that Malcolm and I had been teammates instead of Tim right at that moment.

"He doesn't understand our fear like we do. It's just a simple phobia to him." Ouri said angrily into my ear. I was also thankful for Ouri to be by my side. He knew what kind of fear I was experiencing. He had it as well. He could sympathize with me as well.

I didn't know why Gregor seemed to think Tim wasn't intending harm. Sure Tim meant what he said, but he had to have gone too far in his 'helping my phobia'. Gregor was a nice hero-nerd, so why did he take Tim's side?

Oh well, my brain was still reeling from this event that I could hardly pay attention to anything. Before I knew it, Malcolm was telling me to stand up and see if the gym trainers would allow my switching. I stared off into space while the red-head talked. I could barely understand words that were being exchanged, brain being in my own world.

Tim came up to me with a slight apologetic look on his face. Luke looked sorrier and tried to think something to me, but I still could barely process words. I shied away from Tim and hid behind Malcolm as if I was a small and timid child hiding behind a father or mother. Tim looked hurt and said something I couldn't hear or understand.

Cliff gave me a concerned look and glanced between Tim and me before saying something to Malcolm.

I continued to stare blankly and fearfully at Tim, now a dragon owner, while behind Malcolm. Later I would back and shake my head at my actions, but I was paralyzed in fear and couldn't look at the situation from a different perspective. All that mattered was that I couldn't trust Tim's team of Pokémon anymore.

"Utopia." Finally a word got through my foggy brain. I looked up and saw Cliff giving me a frown. "Your actions are highly strange. I still think that you and your partner Mr. Feldman can still work together… though judging by your actions I might change my mind…"

I didn't know how to respond. I wasn't sure myself about Tim and if I could trust him again. I could trust Malcolm and Ouri. Actually, I did want to spend more time with Malcolm and Ouri. But then again I might be overreacting. What was I to do?

"Mr. Cliff, could I pair up with Utopia for today? I'm from Lacunosa and I understand her fear of dragons on a personal level." Ouri Greene said convincingly.

Cliff seemed impressed and pleased with Ouri's request. His eyebrows rose appreciatively and he nodded. "Ok, just for today's challenge Ouri and Utopia can act as a team. I'm very sorry that this whole conflict had to happen, but perhaps a day will calm things between Team DragonVow." He said as a slight question.

Tim nodded seriously. "Things will be worked out by tomorrow." He said confidently. He gave me a look that seemed strangely soothing and confident, a look I had not seen from him before. I almost felt sorry for doubting him after seeing his face, but I stood by hanging out with Ouri for the day.

"_Sorry about the scare, Utopia…"_ Luke thought in his disarming way.

I ventured a small smile in spite of my intense fear of Tim's new Axew.

"Then for today Guy Fellow will work with Tim Feldman." Announced Cliff in an authoritative voice.

Ouri seemed to act as supporting as he could while Malcolm nodded respectfully. The red-head had wanted to work with me, but he seemed to be ok with Ouri looking after me.

Tim nodded and walked toward me to shake hands as if we had just made an agreement.

I regained some of my composure and stopped hiding behind Malcolm. I accepted his handshake and his dark eyes flashed. I felt suddenly uneasy and he leaned closer to me to say something secretive. "I'm still going to help you. My Axew is the key to resolving this whole incident. And you may care to know…" he leaned even closer, raising a suspicious eyebrow from both Ouri and Malcolm, "I think it would interest you that my middle name is Roy." Tim's expression was almost smug as he leaned back a little and said, "And who knows, I might be more inclined to let a few secrets slip after Axew makes appearances…" with that, he let go of my hand and turned away to find his new partner for the day.

I couldn't start to process this. _His middle name was Roy? What did that have to do with anything? Wait, did he say something about more secrets with the arrival of his Axew? But… Wait, was he rewarding me with secrets after Axew encounters? That sneaky-!_

"What'd he say to you?" Malcolm asked, slightly concerned at my expression.

I put on a casual smile and replied, "Just stuff… he apologized for scaring me…" I regretted telling Malcolm a lie, but it seemed harmless enough. Not everyone needed to know about Tim and his obsession of curing my phobia. Not to mention that the soothsayer Jamie herself had said that I would meet up with Kyurem sometime in the future… which wasn't heartening in the least. And Tim was even going as far to tell me a secret as a hope of making me stand the dragon? That was kind of twisted in my opinion.

"Well, we have to meet some people around Mistralton and do a few errands for them today, so things shouldn't be that hard." My partner Ouri said with a grin I had almost forgotten. Back when we were neighborhood kids we smiled and played together a lot and now I was just remembering it. "And I don't have a dragon Pokémon, so things should go well."

I cracked a nervous smile at Ouri and said to Malcolm, "Well, sorry for that freak-out… I don't do that a whole bunch… And thanks for helping."

"Hey no sweat," he said with an award-winning grin. "I'll check on you later to make sure you feel ok. The minute Tim scares you, tell me and I'll be there."

"Thanks." I thanked him, though I figured I wouldn't need to call on his help. I mean, I had told Tim things I hadn't even said to my own parents or internet friends. I trusted Tim to a pretty high degree. I was just scared and needed a little time to recover.

Ouri seemed very cheery and said brightly, "So let's get to work and meet some people. With your new group of friends this should be a piece of cake."

I wanted to inform him that my people skills were more than less lacking, but I went along anyway. What could this helping thing possibly entail: a few errands while working with an old friend. Though… I had spaced out on Cliff's speech, so I had no clear idea of what we were going to do. Oh well, I had a feeling that this was actually going to feel like a good day.

…

My hopes of doing easy chores under a sunny sky were instantly washed away when the October chill blew seemingly through my body. On top of that, the first place that we went by had a family consisting of a mother, father, older brother, and younger sister. The trouble was that the children loved hiding things and the family had a list of missing things. The funny thing was that they had expected trainers to stop by to find their lost items. Maybe that was part of the job for today; the townsfolk would find some chores for us trainers to do.

"But can't the kids say where they hid the things?" I asked as I looked over the list. As expected, a TV remote was missing. I swear those devices sometimes hide themselves.

The mother shook her head while patting the head of the son. "I'm afraid they've forgotten where they hid these items. The items have been gone for a solid week now and we were hoping Pokémon trainers for the Gym could help."

I gave Ouri a look that said 'this is in the job description?' and he shrugged back.

"I wanna be a Pokémon trainer an' work for Skyla when I grow up!" announced the young boy getting the head-pat.

I ventured a small grin. This kid had a dream and I still had a goal to find. But enough about that, I've had enough emotional problems for one day, I didn't need the drama. Besides, I was spending time with good ol' Ouri.

And my spacing was back to normal… "Good for you then. You've got a dream." I said happily to the kid. He was about nine and still a few years away from getting his first Pokémon. But hey, a kid could dream.

I was tempted to day dream about kids and to what degree I liked them, but Ouri took out a pencil from his guitar case and circled half of the list. "I'll take half and you take the other half. Do you have any psychic Pokémon to find hidden things?"

I grimaced and said I didn't.

"That's ok, I don't either. But my Scraggy has a keen eye for shiny things. I'll call him out. Do you think any of your Pokémon could help?"

I went through my team mentally. Len the Palpitoad was a little too big to be searching for small things hidden in tight spaces. Sundazzle would burn the house down. Ole would give his creeper smile and possibly mentally scar everyone in the house. Pebbles could be helpful maybe… she was a bird and did like shiny things, but then again she enjoyed pain from other Pokémon… Maybe my team wasn't the best suited for searching for hidden items. I would have to do. "Not really… I'll try looking…"

I took the list, checked to make sure that there was nothing on the back, and then tore the paper in two so that we could split up. That was what I thought would be the best way to do things.

Ouri looked at his half-sheet and said, "I was planning to look with you, but if you want to split up…"

"Oh… I thought that was the best way to find the things…" I said with little confidence. Tim would have approved with the splitting up, but I wasn't teamed up with Tim today. I grinned and said, "Ok, we can work together then…"

"We aren't in a hurry." The green-haired guitarist replied. He set his guitar against the wall, took off his shoes, and looked over his list before directing me to start in the living room.

I removed my shoes and thought of how to find small hidden things, then Gregor and his invention/prototype, and then it hit me. I proclaimed, "Hey! We have a dowsing machine! We don't need to look manually, do we?" I couldn't believe it had taken me until this time to realize that this task could be easy.

Ouri nodded and pulled out his Dowsing Machine. Not all trainers had them, but if you could get to Nacrene the company loved to hand out the devices for a small fee and promised lost fortunes. Both Ouri and I had gotten these apparently. He fired up the little electronic device and frowned. "Uh, maybe this thing won't find** lost** items per say…"

I walked closer and saw that there was a mass of items on the screen, too many to distinguish one from the other. The dowsing machine couldn't tell if an item was lost or not, so every item was a hidden treasure to it. I was disappointed that Gregor's partial prototype couldn't help in our quest and we began to search the normal and simple way, by looking. Yes, in the Pokémon world we evidently still look for the remote between the sofa cushions. Go figure.

Ouri called out his little Scraggy to help look. Scraggy was a cute little Pokémon (that I wasn't allergic to) and looked like a little luchador with baggy pants. The children loved Scraggy the moment he emerged and swarmed the Pokémon. In fact, Ouri's Scraggy pretty much ended up being a distraction for the kids so that they wouldn't get in our way. The kids loved the Pokémon and the Pokémon couldn't say no to the attention. The little girl often squealed in excitement as Scraggy playfully charged in for a light head-butt.

Ouri and I moved to the laundry room to search for things hidden behind the washer and dryer. The machines weren't humming and the task was quite boring. It was like looking for the targets in the Celestial tower yesterday, except harder, like an 'I spy' game of sorts when there are so many other items to sort through.

While I was searching in vain for a blue washcloth, Ouri interrupted my thoughts by asking me how I was doing. I continued to search while answering. "I'm better now. Still as afraid of dragons as before."

"I always knew there was something off about your partner." Ouri said with a grimace on his face.

"Well, he's a little different…" I gave a weak defense of Tim.

He replied in a concerned tone, "Why do you defend him after he took in a dragon Pokémon even though he knew full well you're afraid of them? That's just outright rude and insensitive of him. And then that nerd Gregor tries to convince us that his intentions are good?" my friend gave me a searching look and asked, "So why are you showing partiality to a guy that shoved your phobia in your face?"

I couldn't answer that. I looked down and pretended to think to have found something on the list. Tim was a friend to me, a stronger friend than I could remember ever having. Sure I knew Ouri since I was little but things had changed. And even though I was still a little ticked at his Axew and his little entreaty with secrets, I couldn't disown him. _Was it because Luke was also a contributing factor in staying friends with Tim?_ Luke was very sweet and nice after all.

_But still…_ My mind wandered to some of our closer moments, usually with me breaking down with something bugging me. Twist Mountain stood out the most, since that was when Tim confessed about his firm belief in his killing ability of sorts. He had been frank, frustrated, and talked about himself in a way I couldn't really condemn. Even with his promise to cure my phobia (which I still opposed) and his slight annoyingness, I couldn't…

"What, you like him or something? I thought you and Malcolm got along great." Ouri said a little flippantly.

My face reddened and I quickly replied, "No way to I like Tim in that way! He's a **friend**. And Malcolm is a nice friend too. And you as well, I'm glad to see you after so many years." I gave him a small and genuine smile. "I'm just making friends here. I'm not looking for anything more serious."

Ouri Greene nodded with almost a satisfied look. "That's good to hear then."

We lapsed into silence and my mind wandered back over his new dragon Pokémon and how that was going to work out. I wasn't really looking for lost items anymore and my spacy mind seemed quite alright with that. After all, Ouri seemed to know that this day was just devoted to meeting and helping the townsfolk around here. There was no time limit and no failing if we didn't complete a task.

I could almost imagine how much fun Tim was having with Guy. In fact, that thought made me feel a little like a schemer. Oh yes, I'd love to hear how much Tim hated working with a non-friend. He'd be back to his 'I hate everyone and stop asking me questions' attitude. I still felt a little warmth in my heart when thinking about something that would annoy Tim. Sure we were friends, but friends can annoy each other, right?

"So traveling around Unova working out for you?" Ouri paused and remarked on my expression, "What are you so smug about?"

"Oh?" I tried to hide my expression but decided to let him in on my little enjoyment. "I was just thinking how annoyed Tim is right now with working with a person he doesn't know or get along with very well. He'll be all emo again." I smirked happily.

Ouri found this funny and giggled with me. "Sounds entertaining?" He asked with a smirk on his face.

"I dunno, but it amuses me." I answered.

Ouri seemed to abandon all hope of searching for the time being and looked at me brightly. He asked me, "Say, tomorrow Skyla isn't giving us any tasks to do for the job, so do you want to go with me back to our hometown? I was planning on going alone to see my family, but would you want to come?"

I was caught off-guard by his random request. I thought about Lacunosa and if I really wanted to go back. My family was living in Anville town right now, though I still was unsure if I wanted to talk to them. They still weren't telling me about my heritage and seemed so uncomfortable with the subject. Then again, getting out of Mistralton sounded like a good idea to me. "I think that sounds fun. If Skyla lets us trainers out of Mistralton then I'll tag along."

"Great!" my green-haired friend smiled widely.


	44. The Five?

**Tim's POV**

Thanks to my poor communication with my newest Pokémon I was stuck with Guy Fellow to do odd jobs around Mistralton. Sure I could blame Nessa for it, but I had already told myself that a baby Pokémon wouldn't know any better. And Utopia probably hated me for it, but I wasn't going to back down. Not after Gregor advised me to put my baiting technique into action.

In actuality, Gregor had hinted at telling a secret for each dragon encounter she had. Well, not that specifically, but to that idea. If I could tell Utopia a secret for every Axew encounter, she might start liking seeing the dragon in hopes of a secret. Call me heartless for using a psychology test like that, but I could guess that it would work ok. _What else was there to do? Lock her in a room with Nessa?_ Actually, that would be kind of funny.

But my confidence was restored in what I was doing. The first reason of this was that Gregor sort of supported the idea and had suggested a few things as we ate breakfast. He was a great mind like me so I respected his opinion. Second reason was that Utopia seemed to feel confident as well. Her look of fear and hiding behind Malcolm had hurt a little, but she seemed to have taken the bait for my secrets. Though I had to admit, I wasn't so thrilled about it myself. Not everyone wants to tell their secrets to someone else. But if it helped cure her in time for the showdown with Kyurem Jamie was predicting… _Rotten soothsayer if you ask me._

Well, I still had to deal with Guy Fellow for the day thanks to negligence. I can't say that I hated him, but as luck would have it, he would end up asking too many questions and I just didn't want to be friendly.

Luke seemed to sense Utopia's emotions and thought to me, _"I think she still trusts you. She was scared, that's all."_ He thought happily. _"It'd be terrible for you to lose your friendship with Utopia over a single Pokémon."_

"It's her phobia, it's more than a single Pokémon." I said quietly as I looked for the dread-locked dancer. I wanted Luke to turn invisible while I teamed up today so that Guy wouldn't be asking about my Pokémon, but I guessed that most people in the final ten had already seen Luke.

"Hey! Looks like something happened and I have a new partner for today!" said a friendly voice behind my back. I could quickly guess that this was Guy Fellow, the person I would have to tolerate for today. The dread-ed dancer came closer and clapped me on the back.

I jumped away from him and snapped, "Don't touch me!"

Guy seemed a little surprised, and then his expression went into a more of an apologetic look. "Sorry, I didn't know you were that sensitive." His face broke into a smile and he looked at Luke floating by my shoulder. "Nice Pokémon you've got there. I've heard rumors it can talk."

"Luke's a guy! Sheesh!" I felt exasperated at how many people call Luke an 'it' without first asking his gender. _He's my friend dammit!_

Guy seemed to become more flustered with everything I said. "Hey, sorry, man. Didn't mean to tick you off."

"Then don't talk to him like that." I growled.

Guy was trying to make amends quickly, but I didn't give him very much mercy. I just didn't like that Utopia had gone into that much shock over simply seeing an Axew that she had to get a different partner to recover. Guy had nothing to do with it, but I wasn't in the mood to be nice.

I spotted Malcolm Kwester out of the corner of my eye, glaring at me. I ignored him as best as I could, though he still irked me. Most of the teams were gone now, off to find places to help out the needy people of Mistralton.

Guy threw up his hands and said, "Ok, sorry. I'll treat Luke like a human being."

"You ought to." I huffed.

Luke, tired of being argued over, floated to Guy and thought something to him that I couldn't hear. If I knew my friend, he was being nice and possibly thinking that Guy could be a nice friend.

Guy's face changed a few times from shock to thoughtfulness, to a smile. After the small talk, my new partner said, "Ok then, now that that's settled, shouldn't we head out and look for things to do?"

I dreaded doing anything with him simply because if the work was boring enough conversation might arise. I didn't want to tell anything about myself to this guy. I rolled my eyes and wished I could go off and find Mistralton Cave or sit in Chargestone Cave.

Guy seemed to toughen up and said a little more firmly, "Look, I've lived in Castelia City and I'm used to meeting all sorts of jerks like you. Don't get all high and mighty because you're older than me. Look, boy, we're going to work together."

I wasn't surprised by his show of toughness. Of course people who lived in Castelia had to have street smarts and had come into contact with many, many other people. Calling me a jerk annoyed me, but I only ended up glaring back at him passively. Maybe I had fought him enough and real work should get done. Then again, I still had to clear up the issue of leadership. "So you think you can order me around?"

"_Why do you make things difficult?"_ Luke sighed with exasperation.

I ignored Luke's thought for the time; I was still daring Guy to reply to my challenge. _His response would tell me what kind of guy he was. Wait, that sounded weird. Why was he called Guy in the first place?_ I inwardly groaned.

The dancer seemed to think about it, and then admitted, "I'm not sure. I don't know too much about you to judge if I could be a better leader than you."

And the inevitable questions would come after that. I didn't want to talk about myself and I guess listening to Guy for one day couldn't be too terrible. Yeah I wasn't always the stubborn one to make sure I got my way, if you couldn't tell already. I huffed and said, "Then you be the leader, I don't care."

Guy didn't look all that thrilled about our partnership any more than I was. At least we agreed on something.

…

Both Guy and I begrudgingly began to look around Mistralton to help the people with useless work. Mr. Dimitri didn't mention anything about this aspect of working in a gym, so why were we doing it? Was this an excuse with free labor or maybe a plot to get us familiar with the town and the lifestyle in an annoying fashion?

Either way, I was going to see a little more of Mistralton today. And by **little** I mean that there was little to see in the first place. The runway and airport dominated the town, seconded by the multiple gardens. What else was there to see here?

Guy and I looked at a few houses to see if there was any help needed, but other teams had already gotten there. Luke suggested the control tower and we went there. Luke was trying hard to be nice to Guy when I could care less about my partner. I didn't **want** to get to know him.

As soon as we entered the doorway, a little ball of white fluff (more commonly called a Minccino) squeaked happily at our arrival. "Min minmin! Cino Minccino!"

A Crustle also sat in the corner, minding its own business. Obviously Pokémon were free to roam around in the control and shipping tower. Luke decided to introduce himself to the overly-friendly Minccino and the two began to chat in Pokéspeak.

I didn't really care. Hell, I didn't really care about anything today. I was determined to make the worst of things.

Guy on the other hand seemed to care a lot about the place and actually petted the little Minccino on the head to show that he was friendly. The dread-locked dancer looked up to one of the people behind the counter and asked, "Is this Pokémon yours?"

The man shook his head and said pleasantly, "Nope, this Minccino is here because it wants to. In fact, Noel here found and took care of the little guy." The man gestured to the woman on a further counter. "Her kindness to it made it want to stay here and keep this place nice and tidy. You know how Minccinos are."

I knew that Minccinos were renowned for their broom-like tails and for their cleaning habits. Though I wondered maliciously if Malcolm, the supposed Pokémon researching prodigy, would know that at first mention or if he would bluff until his mind caught on. That thought made me crack a devious smile.

The worker nodded kindly, as if taking my expression as confirmation of his statement. "Well, I take it you two are in the gym competition, right? Or are you passing trainers? If you are from the gym we could use some strong men like you."

_Oh, so now we were__** men**__. Flattery at its finest, appealing to egos and the like._ Guy fell for the flattery and said, "We are from the gym and would love to help in any way we can."

I begrudgingly followed the friendly worker behind the counter (along with Guy) to the sorting room. There were boxes of all sizes and weights, all stacked in towers. A man was working alone to move a tower of boxes to a conveyer belt that would lead to a cargo plane. The Minccino and Crustle from before stayed in the main welcoming area.

The worker gestured to the sorting room and said, "Today we were a few people short for the loading, so you two strong lads will be a great help."

_I'm sure that vacation for some of the workers was just a coincidence._ I thought bitterly.

"If I could get one of you to work with Richard over here, the other of you can help load the boxes off the conveyer belt outside to the plane." The man smiled and said, "Who wants which?"

"I'll be inside." I said quickly. I still liked being inside in dark places. And even though this was far from a cave, I liked it better here than doing something outside.

The man looked at me and said, "Are you sure? It's a little harder to take the boxes to the conveyer belt than it is to load them."

_And a critique of my frame, why was I not surprised?_ "I'm an archeologist, I can handle it." I said. That was a great excuse that made people accept that I was strong. And I was for the matter. If I spent most of my time excavating, climbing, and otherwise exploring Twist Mountain, I would be considerably fit.

The worker nodded and led Guy to work on the other end of the conveyer belt. I was now in the dark, high-ceilinged storage room with Luke and the strange man who was working in his own little world. At least this guy didn't look like he would bother me. I hoped not.

"_So what now?"_ Luke thought to me.

"I ask the guy what to do." I said simply and walked up to him coolly. "Hi, I'm going to help out today. What do you want me to do?" Under normal circumstances that would be one of the last things I would say, but I had resigned to keep up this mentality for the day.

The man called Richard, who could have been somewhere in his twenties and with sandy blonde hair that was slightly askew from sweat, turned to look at me. In the gloom his eyes shone with health. "Well hello. Nice of a trainer to volunteer. What's your name?"

I could almost feel my dislike of the guy growing. _Great, another friendly person I don't want to know._ "Tim."

"Richard." The man nodded and stretched a little before saying, "I'll show you the ropes of this place then."

…

I don't know how long I worked in the gloomy storage area. Time was only marked by the boxes I had to haul to the belt. It wasn't grueling work, but it was relatively harder than any of the work Skyla had put us through. I tried my best to ignore Richard and he decided after a bit to stop bothering me so that we could finish the work. Sure he might be friendly and all, but I wasn't interested.

Luke and Siggy helped a little with getting the tall and high-placed boxes. And while they weren't needed, Siggy and Luke played tag. It was kind of nice to see Luke having so much fun while surrounded by work. It still made me think what could have happened to Luke had he still been alive. _Would he be in this contest to work as a gym trainer like his father? Would he fit in and make lots of friends if we ever went separate ways? Would he find a girl he liked?_

Those thoughts were sobering and I managed to go through work. Then Richard informed me that all of the packages for tomorrow's flight were all loaded and I could go. He thanked me and I went on my way. I left Siggy out of his Pokéball to fly around if he so chose to be around Luke.

The worker at the counter was kind enough to offer me a sweat towel and a drink once I had left the gloom and after waiting for Guy to be done as well, our temporary team called it a day and went back to the Pokémon center to wash up.

I suppose working with Guy hadn't been all that terrible, though I didn't have to work with him directly all that much. So that went along better than I thought. That's the nice thing about pessimism, you expect the worst and you get pleasant surprises.

…

After a nice long shower and some lunch, I found myself in the company of other familiar trainers. Utopia and Ouri had come for a lunch break and were chatting happily as they came down to the buffet. She and I met eyes and she waved. I took that as a good sign. Ouri wasn't as pleased at seeing me, but I wasn't concerned.

The two joined me at the table and began to talk about their adventures of finding hidden things in a cluttered home. Though I could guess most of the details were blown out of proportion, the story was fun to hear from Utopia.

"And then we finally found the TV remote, which was crammed in the pantry at the top shelf. I don't know how it got there and the kids didn't even try to explain it." Utopia said with a huge grin. "And we even found a toy car half-jammed in a hole in the wall."

"That was an interesting story." Ouri said merrily.

"Yup. It turned out that the kids were pretending that the car was in some sort of adventure game and the car got stuck in the mountains—aka the wall. Then they totally forgot about it until we found it. Very interesting!"

I let a small smile creep over my face. I was thinking that if Nessa hadn't burst out unannounced that I could have had that sort of fun finding things with Utopia. It would have been much more entertaining than taking boxes from a pile and putting them on a belt with a stranger companion.

"Well, that's a little taste of things over in that house. How was your day?" Utopia asked. It was almost as if all of her fear and terror of my Pokémon had vanished and things were back to normal.

"Boring. Grunt work that workers conveniently put off for trainers. At least Luke had fun." I said evenly.

"_Yup. It was fun to help out a little. Mistralton is all about its shipping, so we got to be a part in this town's livelihood. And Siggy and I played a little tag too."_ Luke thought happily. I guessed that he didn't reach Ouri, because Utopia's expression changed but the guitarist's didn't.

"Oh, what are you planning on doing for tomorrow?" Utopia asked me, giving me her full attention.

I shrugged. "I wasn't planning on anything so far…" _What was she getting at? _

"Well I think Ouri and I will fly over to Lacunosa town tomorrow."

I frowned and snickered a little. _She was kidding, right?_ "And why would you do that?"

Ouri seemed a little offended of my attitude. "We are going back to our hometown. I have family there that I haven't seen for a while and I'm sure Utopia would like to visit again."

I was slightly confused. "So you want to go to the town that is closest to your phobia? Come on, isn't that just asking for Kyurem to come out and scare-"

"Don't be so flippant about Kyurem!" Ouri shot back, obviously offended and possibly scared about seeing the Lacunosa resident's worst fear. "It was our home."

I didn't understand that logic, but I didn't feel like fighting anymore. I had fought enough with Guy and that one Richard guy in shipping. "Sure, ok. Go to your hometown at the risk of seeing that dragon." I said dismissively.

Ouri looked mad and Utopia tried to explain a little. "It's kind of like visiting your home after a long time. It'll be fun. I don't think you really understand since you haven't been away from home all that much."

I guess she did have a point there. The longest I had been away from home was on the trip to Nacrene city and the resulting trip to Relic Castle. But I still didn't like the idea of Utopia being on the other side of Unova tomorrow. I wanted to volunteer to come with, but that would sound too much like I needed to be around her. I shrugged and said, "Fine, if you are so set on going there…"

"Hey! Great timing." A gratingly familiar voice said and the owner of the voice slid into a chair close to Utopia. "Nice to see you guys here." The redhead said with gusto.

"Hi Malcolm. How was your day so far?" Utopia smiled back and pleasant conversation ensued about Malcolm's joyous task of raking leaves and talking with the locals. His partner, Archie, was off somewhere on his own and wasn't present at the conversation.

Another person joined the conversation, the nerd Gregor. He was also without his partner and began to talk with the group as if he had known them all of his life. I sank into silence, only saying a few things to Utopia occasionally. The six of us; Gregor, Malcolm, Utopia, Ouri, Luke, and myself, were all gathered in the café with no interrupters. Either the others in the competition were off on their own meeting or something else entirely.

"Hey, I've got a crazy idea!" Malcolm said jovially, "How about we all form like an alliance? We five can all go to the final five… if they have a final five. I mean, we all mostly get along…" he gave me a meaningful look and continued, "What do you guys think? We can all help each other to win and not give up."

"That would work a little better I think if we were all teammates. Seeing Utopia and Tim are the only teammates here, it would be hard to encourage one person on the team (like in my case) and not the other not in on the deal." Gregor said in a calculating way.

Ouri nodded. "But even so, I think the five of us should at least go to the finals before the winner is chosen."

"No argument there." Utopia agreed.

I had no idea how the challenge would work out in the ending rounds so I didn't voice any thoughts. _Skyla had narrowed down the numbers not even a week in to the challenge, who knew what else she had in store?_ And the fact that we were allowed to give up seemed sinister, as if we were going to** want** a way out. How was an alliance going to help anything? _Once again Malcolm was a little too idealistic and possibly airhead-ish as well._

"Any thoughts, Tim?" Malcolm asked with obvious dislike.

"Whatever." I reflected his dislike right back at him.

"You two…" Utopia face-palmed.

**A/N: Woot! I have over 100 reviews! Thanks so much for your readings, faves, alerts, and most importantly reviews. :D**

**Secondly, I wish to note that the guest star, Richard, was suggested by Hoenn Master96. I would mention him more if my plot wasn't solidified. Thanks anyways :) I don't take OCs normally, so a brief cameo was all I could mention.**

**Thirdly, the random Minccino and the faithful Crustle (feature in the show 'Your Pokémon' on Unova TV) got a little mention. :)**

**Fourthly, I recently watched an anime called Bokurano and the character of Jun Ushiro kind of reminded me of Tim, minus the violent tempers, glasses, and the burden of saving the world. Just a little side note :)**


	45. Mistralton Cave

**Utopia's POV**

Lunch ended up being very fun. Malcolm, Ouri, Tim, and Gregor were all great company to talk with. It was then that I realized that taking this challenge was probably one of the best things I had done on my year-long journey so far. At last I had friends that I could talk with and hang out with. Forget the internet friends that could tell you anything you wanted to hear, these were real people! If only this moment could last forever. The laughs and merriment… it was just so refreshing!

However, our time came to an end as we all finished our meals. Gregor excused himself to find his partner to go for a round two for helping the community. I was struck by how nice he was and that even though no one had told how much we had to do, the hero-nerd would still help. Malcolm tried to act as gallant as Gregor and decided he was going to go for round two as well, whether his partner was going to help or not.

Tim on the other hand didn't care about looking good in front of others and bluntly stated that he wasn't going to help. Ouri and I talked over what we would do and I leaned toward relaxing. Could you blame me? Relaxing is nice, especially since my Pokémon would probably want to just roam around outside. There were only a few more days in fall for them to do it without getting into snow and frost.

"I'll let you relax then." Ouri said with a wink. "I'll be off to work with those guys. You have made a great group of friends." He added in a slightly lower tone, "Just don't let your guard down all that much around Tim. He's still got a dragon to terrorize you with…"

I waved him off with a smile. "I get it."

"See you then." Ouri said brightly and left.

Tim and I were the last ones in the challenge left in the buffet. Some other people were in the corners, but I hardly noticed them. I smiled and said as I rose from my seat, "I'm going to be in the forest with my Pokémon."

"Why not in the cave?"

I replied, "My Pokémon don't like caves as much as yours."

"No I mean…" Tim stopped himself and stood up. He avoided my look and said, "Ok then. See you around."

Luke floated to me and thought, _"He means that he wanted to hang out with you. Maybe you two could talk out the dragon issue?" _

"Luke!" Tim wheeled on his friend as if embarrassed.

I giggled a little once more at their friendship dynamic. I only got to see it when I was just with those two. They became quite subdued in larger crowds. Maybe they were that close of friends that they hardly talked to anyone but each other. My mind brought up a visual of the picture I had seen in Twist Mountain, the one with younger Tim and Luke at the restaurant. If I thought hard enough I could almost imagine Luke as the kid with curly black hair. "Well… that would be nice to talk over. I still don't like that you got the dragon and spooked me with it…"

"Nessa is a girl." Tim corrected me.

"Ok…" I paused a little and realized something, "Hey wait, you don't have any other girl Pokémon on your team, do you? That's you first female Pokémon, right?" _And he nicknamed her too?_

Tim's expression grew a little sinister, as if he was planning on shoving the dragon in my face again. "Yes. And if you want to see her again, I might be inclined to talk a little about the choice of name for her…"

_Ooh, there was that tempting again! That little sneakster!_ I tried hard not to think about what could possibly be behind the dragon's (And I shudder at the thought of seeing that beast again) name. _Come on curiosity, stop working! _I thought to myself. "Thanks for the offer…"

"_Please Utopia!"_ Luke thought again. _"We didn't mean for you to get so scared."_

Tim didn't hear what Luke said this time, but he seemed to have his suspicions.

I sighed and decided that I wasn't going to have anything better to do anyways. "Ok, fine… I'll join you in Chargestone…"

Luke's expression was so endearing after I said that that I knew that I had made a good choice. I tried to see what Tim's expression was, but he was already heading out. Sometimes I swear that guy is so guarded!

Tim went up to the second floor to grab his backpack of things. I went up too and figured on bringing the little Minccino doll Malcolm had given me on my birthday. Maybe that little ball of fluffiness could calm me if Tim got any ideas in scaring me… or maybe trusting Tim was going to be a bad idea. _After all, who was going to try to console me after I saw the dragon again? Wasn't I being stupid in trusting him? I was putting myself in a cave with a dragon and a person I still thought I could trust._

_Oh dash it all! I trusted Tim with stuff about my life, I can still trust him!_ I told myself, but grabbed a few items just in case. Then I decided to take the entire backpack. You never know what you'll need in a cave.

I hauled the huge backpack on my back (obviously), double-checked to see that all of my Pokémon were safe on my belt, and raced out the door so that Tim wouldn't get annoyed with how long I was taking. Well wouldn't you know that Tim was waiting right outside the door and I bowled into him.

"Sheesh!" Tim exclaimed. "What is wrong with you?"

"Sorry. I was rushed." I said as flatly as I could. I crossed my arms and said, "Ok, let's head to Chargestone then, since you're so keen on hanging out with me."

Tim wasn't pleased and responded. "Sometimes you can just be plain annoying."

"Same to you. That's why we're friends." I finished with a grin. I pushed past him and started down the stairs. _Oh showing up Tim never got old! I could come up with little zingers for him and be as happy as a Tranquill._

"I'll be showing you around Chargestone then." Tim said behind me. "I know it pretty well."

Once again I questioned my sanity and trust, but I was able to shove it aside. _Stop doubting your friend, Utopia!_ I told myself again. We exited out the door without any more talk or trouble and before I knew it I was inside the blue cave again, my hair rising from the static.

Tim snickered at my hair undoubtedly standing up and I pulled out a hair tie to shut him up about it. My partner held out his hand as if leading a cave tour, "So, just follow me and you won't get lost. Oh yeah, and wear this." He tossed a small sort of light at me. "It might get dark."

I put the headlamp on and switched it on. It provided ok illumination. I looked at Luke and said, "This is kind of cool." I frowned as I saw the light seem to turn him nearly invisible. His ghostliness seemed a little more real with light shining through him. I turned my head to avert the light. In some TV shows light was supposed to get rid of ghosts, but was that even possible in real life? I still didn't know much about ghosts so I stayed on the safe side.

"_This is going to be fun."_ Luke thought, not at all fazed by the light seemingly cutting through him. _"I used to explore Twist with Tim with headlamps. In fact, I think that might be the same one that I used."_

I touched the light thoughtfully and imagined the curly-haired boy in the photograph wearing it. "Cool."

"Well come on, we have a long ways to travel and we want as much daylight as we can get." Tim said and paved the way with some repel in the air.

"Why don't you spray some on yourself and wait for it to wear off instead of spraying a path for yourself?" I asked.

"Then Luke would stay away. I would've thought you could understand that much." Tim said, the cave already lightening his spirits. His tone was almost chiding and happy, something not many other people would believe.

"And why does daylight matter in a cave?"

"It's a surprise."

"Why do I feel that a surprise from you might mean your newest Pokémon?" I grumbled to myself. Even so I followed the quickly moving Tim. We passed a large floating rock and Tim pushed it aside. Many smaller floating rocks hovered above our heads and wiggled as we passed under them. I could actually start to see that the legend about this cave being fueled by a fusion bolt of Zekrom's. It was strange and beautiful at the same time.

Tim navigated through so fast that I could hardly start keeping track of which rock we passed. He jumped down a ledge and continued on, leaving me to follow. I scrambled down the drop and ran after. _What was his rush?_

"Almost there." He said reassuringly as he pretty much vaulted down a set of stairs.

I continued to try to keep up with him while paying careful attention to where the repel was sprayed so that no brave-hearted Joltik thought I would be fun the battle. Sure I could fight, but then I would lose Tim and possibly get lost. I panted and smiled as I saw a light. We had made it all the way through the cave.

"Wait, I thought you wanted to show me around this cave. Why are we exiting it?" I called out while catching my breath. Man, I regretted carrying a heavy backpack along. _How did such a scrawny person like Tim move so fast with a backpack like his on?_

Tim turned around, the light of the outside surrounding his outline and making his expression hard to read. "It's not this cave I'm going to show you around in, not on the way up."

"Say what?"

"Come on."

I mumbled and followed after at a slower pace. And there it was: the beautiful route with the river and lots of trees, the one between Chargestone and Driftveil. What cave was close to here? Just as I was about to ask the great explorer what the heck was up with him, he whipped out a Town Map and started wading through the tall, dark grass.

"It should be somewhere in this vicinity…" He mumbled to himself.

"_I'll check out the place."_ Luke volunteered. "_Besides, it still stinks around here thanks to repel…"_ he floated up into the sky and I lost sight of him.

I rolled my eyes and continued to follow him. Now I was almost unsure of my own footing and a little lost. If I had to find my way back to Mistralton I'd be staring at the town map and wandering around. I would ask Pebbles to fly me around, but she seemed way too small to take me anywhere. _You'd better not pull anything funny…_ I thought to Tim with a pout.

"It should be this way." Tim pointed at the river. He didn't hesitate to call out his Sigilyth and hopped on. He called out Archeops as well for me to hop on. Tim nodded to me. "I've heard that Mistralton Cave is dark, so our headlights will come in handy. Turn yours off to save battery. It would be bad if it went out."

_Mistralton Cave?_ Something about it seemed familiar, if not for the town I had been living in for a while. _Was there supposed to be something important in there?_ I turned off the light on my forehead and got on Archeops.

The two Pokémon took to the sky and Tim pulled out a pair of binoculars and began to scan the ground. _Boy, what did Tim __**not**__ have in his bag?_ Archeops crowed to me, but since Luke was already off somewhere I wasn't given the translation.

I stared at the ground and smiled. This sort of route was a picture perfect place. Only now looking down on it could I see its real beauty, instead of watching for Foonguses. _Those are nasty little mushrooms!_ Anyway, the place was so pretty to look at.

Tim put the binoculars back in his bag and looked at me. "I think Luke's found it. It's up the river a ways."

"So why are we going to Mistralton Cave?" I asked.

"Because I haven't been there before," He replied and directed Siggy to find Luke.

I rolled my eyes at him. I was getting used to his duality; the sour, grumpy side and then the excited, boyish side of him when in caves. That didn't make him any less annoying or less my friend, but still… _And if he hasn't been in this cave yet, how safe was it? It couldn't be a well-traveled cave and might be dangerous or dark. Why am I even hanging out with him after he used his little Nessa Axew on me?_ Once again I was having my doubts and my imagination started to concoct terrible ideas of being in an unfamiliar place with an Axew. "I don't like the thought of it…" I said, though Tim didn't seem to hear me.

We landed on a small jutting piece of land right outside a gaping mouth of the cave. Luke floated up to me and thought, _"I've peeked in and it's pretty dark. The first part of the entrance is steep, but it evens out."_

"So why am I on this little expedition? You can go by yourself." I said, this time making sure Tim knew that this wasn't what I wanted to do in my free time.

Tim hid his emotions pretty well, though I could tell he was slightly disappointed. "So agreed to join me, so why back down now?"

"I think I said that I would join you in Chargestone, not Mistralton Cave." I replied. The mouth of the cave was beginning to creep me out, though I was still fighting with myself whether I should try to show up Tim or try to stay safe. _Be outwardly strong or give in to my fears?_ _Oh decisions, why don't you come to me easily?_

Tim crossed his arms and said, "Mistralton Cave is perfectly safe. I haven't seen this cave before and I'll be exploring it slowly. I won't abandon you or anything in there. And are you scared of the dark as well as dragons?"

I gulped and put on a game face. "Oh fine." I had finally made a decision to trust him and go into a dark and otherwise dangerous cave. Maybe I had an ego of my own to match Tim's. Well, I had survived an entire year by myself, fending off dragon Pokémon and furred Pokémon I was allergic to. I had fought and won three badges, whatever stood in my way I could overcome it! _Yes, Utopia Fletcher was going to be brave and not cower like earlier today. _And I just referred to myself in the third person… cool I guess?

Tim seemed almost at the point of laughing right out at me. "I don't know if I can take your face seriously."

I cranked the headlamp on and marched in the cave, infuriated by his insensitivity. I was being all brave and he found it funny? Once inside the cool and dark cave, my anger cooled slightly. A gentle plip of water sounded somewhere, the sound echoing around the large room. My headlamp was strong, but I could barely see all that far in front of me. I could barely make out the ceiling.

"It's a nice and refreshing look at the inside of the earth, isn't it?" Tim said, snapping me out of my observations. His headlamp was shining in my face and I was temporarily blinded. He stepped closer and inspected a wall closest to us. "I wonder if this rock is the same as Twist's or if it's from an entirely different rock layer. I'll take a few samples and see." He seemed to talk more to himself as he pulled out a small phial and collected some dirt.

"I still question your sanity when you're in a cave. You're worse than a sugar-addicted child in a sweets store." I huffed. Then I heard something moving in the shadows and I turned around quickly. My headlamp only revealed a bolder with a few red crystals. I was about to relax when I remembered that a Pokémon looked quite a lot like that_. A Boldore!_ I thought quickly and pulled out Len's Pokéball.

"Pal! Palpi pal." Len chirped and took a second to orient himself with the darkness of the cave.

"What is it?" Tim asked through the darkness, his light the only sign of his presence.

"Boldore. Go Len, let's give it a good surf attack." I directed with little fear.

My Palpitoad gathered up lots of the water from the cave and sent it in a huge wave at the hunk of living rock. The Boldore sensed the danger and tried to get out of the range of the attack, but was washed back by the super effective move.

"Wrap it up with a bubble-beam!"

"Palpi!" Len obeyed and the rock Pokémon retreated. Len jumped up and down happily, giving his familiar cry of 'pal'.

"Good job." I praised the little sound toad and patted his head. I looked over to where Tim was and smiled. "You're lucky I was here to get rid of a rock Pokémon for you."

Tim tried to look like it didn't affect him, but I knew it did. All of his team (except for the dreadful new one) was weak against rock-type Pokémon. Well, Luke wasn't… but still. He owed me.

I stood up and let Len join me in the dark cave-exploration. _Who else would I trust to protect me in a dark cave in my team: Sundazzle, Pebbles, or Ole? _I shivered as I even thought of trusting Ole in this place… creeper smile plus dark place. That could be a horror movie right there! The last thing the protagonist sees is the creeper smile of a Stunfisk… _**Aah!**_ That gave me serious shivers. "This isn't so bad." I said to distract myself from the scary visual of Ole in the dark.

"Let's start looking around then. There's a set of stairs over there." He pointed to a barely distinguishable set of haphazardly cut stairs to my right. He had amazing vision if he could see that while farther away than me.

I agreed and slowly followed after; making sure Len was staying faithfully by me. I climbed the stairs and looked out over the new level. It was still dark and hard to see, but I think I saw a few stalactites and stalagmites. _Now that I think about it, I hadn't really gone to many caves before now…_

"This place has been visited quite a few times. The only thing missing is lighting and a tour." Tim observed. "It's said that a legendary Pokémon lived here once, but I'm unsure if it still lives here."

"Which Pokémon lives here?"

"One of the beasts that fought against humans for the Pokémon in the Icirrus Moor was said to come here. I would know that part of the history."

"Why?" I couldn't stop myself from asking and I felt stupid right after I asked.

"I'm from Icirrus, idiot." Tim said in typical degrading tone. He paused and said in a nicer tone, "And I think some of my ancestors might have been involved with that war and the fire in the moor…"

"Ancestors…" And then my sadness threatened to engulf me. _Oh family history, why are you so cruel to me? No, I have to keep my prior strength!_ "Good for you then. Let's go on."

"Hey look, there's a staircase to an upper level. Come on!" Tim said with his excitement back. He ran forward and I followed.

I looked around the area with the meager lamplight. "Don't you have any more repel?" I asked as I thought I heard another Boldore getting bolder to attack. "I don't like sneak-attacks…"

Tim didn't answer. I scanned the area and saw his headlamp dancing up the steps. _Darn you!_ I thought and raced to catch up. He said he wouldn't leave me in the cave and here he was, running away in excitement! _Lousy little…_

"Xew…"

I froze at the small sound. My fear quickly turned to anger and I said through the echoing cave, "Tim, you'd better not be playing any funny business! If you are imitating an Axew or think it would be funny to scare me with your Pokémon…"

"Ax." Was my only response.

_Oh Landorus!_ "Tim…" My voice rose with apprehension. I couldn't see where his light was and the sound of a dragon was getting closer. "Timothy Feldman!" I eeped as I heard something move closer. "Timothy **Roy** Feldman where are you?"

My light caught a glimpse of some sort of green body close to my left. I jumped and slowly looked back again. My light found the Pokémon and revealed its true species, an Axew! Just as I thought. "Look, Tim, letting your Axew go out in this-"

"Xew-yew-yew!" the Pokémon cried and lunged forward, aiming to slash at me with the tusks coming out of its mouth.

I shrieked. _What was with Nessa? Why was she attacking me? Oh Landorus I'm in a dark and scary cave with a dragon!_ I fell back on my butt and I was saved by Len, who had jumped between me and the rampaging Axew. My Pokémon received the attack and cried out in pain, but quickly recovered to fire off a close-range bubble-beam attack.

The Axew shook off the water like it was… well, water. It trumpeted and head-butted Len hard, making him stagger back into my lap. _Not good not good not good __**NOT GOOD**__!_ The Axew spat out a bluish energy and blew both of us back.

I gasped as the hard rock struck me in the backpack, slightly dazing me. I fought to stay awake and not to dissolve into fear and cowardice in the face of my fear. No, I had to fight it off, or Tim should call off the Pokémon. _Was that even his?_

Len became highly protective of me and jumped up, starting round two of the match. My Palpitoad sent a rush of water at the dragon, but water still had little effect.

_Oh Landorus! Did I have a Pokémon that had an ice or dragon attack? Curse Landorus, Tim's Archeops had dragon breath and he had the dragon as well._ "Len…" I choked as I turned my headlamp at the beast. I could barely talk. _How was Len supposed to know what I wanted him to do?_ But no, the red eyes of the dragon were almost hypnotizing. My fear spiraled out of control and I fell to the ground, curling up in the fetal position. "Go away… go away…" I pleaded to the dragon.

"Pal PAL!" Len roared, but I couldn't see what was going on. I heard a crash and a few cries of Len, the Axew, and an occasional on-looking Pokémon in the shadows.

A moment of silence sank into the cave and I chanced to look around in the cave. My light revealed Len standing close to me, wounded but still standing. I pushed myself up and checked where the Axew was. It was gone, but that didn't make me feel any better. I patted my faithful Pokémon again and stood shakily to my feet.

"I don't care how much Tim likes this place, I'm getting out!" I sniffed and ran semi-blindly for the exit. I could still see the entrance light so I had a heading. Time in the cave blurred by and I was suddenly out of the darkness and in the light. _Oh the blessed light!_

I sat down on the grass and stared out at the beautiful river. If only beautiful places could help me forget, instead of reminding me more things than I ever wanted to think about. I curled my knees to my chest and began to calm myself down.

_There was a raging Axew in there and I had almost died… well, maybe not died, but it sure felt threatening! Was that Tim's Nessa or a wild Pokémon? Did Tim know that there were wild Axews here? And did he bring me here on purpose?_

"Pal?"

"Oh Len, thank you so much. You saved me, pal!" I choked a little and hugged the sound toad for all I was worth. Thanks to that little guy… well, he had been my most faithful Pokémon of all time, and this was probably one of his shining moments. If I had a camera I would take a picture of this moment for the scrapbook of Len's life.

"Palpi pal toad." Len chirped back, fin-tail wagging. He jumped into the river and splashed me with the cold water.

I giggled and squeaked at the cold sting of the water, but felt happy enough to splash him back. _And who said 'splash' didn't do anything? It was fun. _Len bobbed underwater and splashed me again, trying to cheer me up. It was working.

Well, until the instigator came out into the light. "Utopia!" the back-stabbing partner of mine raced out and nearly pushed me into the water from his haste. He gathered himself and said in a serious tone, "Uh… you ok?"

I glared at him. "Did you send your vicious dragon on me? It was dark and stuff you know! If Len wasn't guarding my back I would have been seriously hurt!" He tried to counter but I was on a role. "You think bringing me into a cave with a dragon is the way to get me out of my phobia? You sick, sick person you!"

"I didn't know!" He shouted over my volume.

I paused and let him explain himself before lashing at him again. I could swear hot tears were forming at my eyes. _Oh Landorus, not again. Why did I have to break down all the time in front of Tim?_

Tim walked closer and said forcefully, "I didn't know Axews lived here. I wouldn't direct a baby dragon to attack you, and especially not in that kind of dark cave. That would be heartless-"

"You took me into a cave crawling with dragons. Happy now?" I sniffed and turned away.

"Dammit Utopia… today's just not been my day…" Tim swore from behind my back. He paused before saying in a lower voice, "Can you forgive me?"

"Not for a while!" I retorted, still sore about the whole thing.

He sighed heavily and said, "Well, since you had to go through that, I think you deserve to hear a little about Nessa, the real Nessa."

I ignored him. _Great, his little secret tactic again. No way was he getting me this time!_

"Look, Nessa was Luke's older sister…"

_Oh Landorus, why was this interesting to me?_ Curiosity struggled with me until I finally turned to face Tim (who looked actually solemn and asking for forgiveness). "Luke… had a sister?"


	46. Nessa and the News

**Utopia's POV**

Say what you will, but even after a brush with a terrifying dragon in a dark cave, I still was curious about the possibility of Luke having a sister. My dread and possible mental scarring was ignored for the sake of a secret. Sometimes I hardly understood myself… but hey, I was right in my assumption all those days ago that Tim had a much more exciting (and not to mention dark) life.

I calmed myself and sat down. I was far enough away from him to say that I was still angry with him, but close enough to hear him and see his face.

This encouraged Tim and his expression lifted from an utterly depressed look to only slightly pessimistic. He took in a breath and looked around for his ghost friend. Strangely the ever-present Luke wasn't present. Tim grew concerned and said, "Luke?"

I began to look around as well. "Where are you Luke? Are you hiding?"

Tim's eyes shot open in fear. "He might still be in there!" He jumped to his feet (a very amazing feat with the backpack of everything on his back) and ran to the cave entrance. He paused and looked back at me. "Sorry, story will have to wait. Something might have happened to Luke."

I nodded. "We need to help him if he found a tough Pokémon!" I said and got up a little slower than he did.

He sneered at me with disbelief. "So you barely survive a dangerous encounter with a dragon and now you're charging in for more? Are you crazy or just that stupid?" He glared at me and said firmly, "He's my friend, so I'll go find him. You stay here and play with your Palpitoad." Before I could argue with him he turned around and disappeared back into the dark cave mouth.

I fumed a little at his plain dismissal of me, and then wondered if I could really walk into a den of dragons. I mean, Tim had it all down. He wasn't afraid of dragons and he knew Luke better than I did. What was wrong about letting Tim find Luke?

_But Luke's my friend as well…_ I gulped and looked at the cave. _Was I needed? Could I even go in there again and fight off my phobia for the sweet little ghost? What if this was all a cruel prank Tim and Luke set up for me to go in and conquer the fear? How dare they!_

After a little while longer of pacing and staring at the cave I grew antsier and antsier. I needed to know what happened to Luke and if Tim would find him. I simply needed to know that Luke was ok. Then I remembered the dragons and I shied away again.

I sighed and looked at my toad defender. "Oh Len, what should I do? I want to help… but I'm scared…"

"Palpi toad-toad to pi." Len jumped out of the water and waddled over to me. "Pal-pal." He insisted.

"Great, now I wish Luke wasn't MIA so that I could understand what you're saying…" I mumbled. I sighed and peered into the cave again, motivating myself to go in and try to help. I took a little step forward, but fear swept over me again and I shook my head.

I was weak and I knew it. Even if my friend Luke was in trouble or lost I was too scared and timid to go in and fight. Sure I had my tough moments, but not when it came to dragons… it was just a weakness and nothing more could be done about it… _If Malcolm or Ouri was trapped in there would I have the guts to go in after them? What if Jamie was really telling the truth with her strange tea leaves? What if I had to face the daddy of all phobias himself: Kyurem? Could I get out of my fear to help others?_

Right now my answer was no. _No I couldn't do it. I could not!_

I leaned against the rocky wall and fought to control my emotions. I reasoned with myself that I was just acting normal. I mean, Kyurem terrorized Lacunosa, so I naturally was afraid of it and dragon Pokémon. And that was ok. I couldn't change my hard-wired fear just in one day. Besides, Tim was probably on the way back with Luke in tow. Then everything would be good and I could get to hear about Luke's sister.

After what felt like an eternity, Tim emerged out of the cave. I jumped up and looked expectantly at him. "Luke's here, right?"

The ghostly form peeked out from my partner's back and grinned. _"Hi."_

"Oh Luke!" I cried and hugged the little bugger. "Don't do that again!"

The ghost pretty much turned red and became transparent. "_Wow… I wasn't expecting that warm of a welcome…"_ he thought to me modestly.

"What happened?" I asked the dark-haired partner of mine.

Tim smirked a little and sat down. I could tell he was adding up things in his head, though I wasn't sure of what. "Luke got side-tracked and went up to the third floor. The reason he didn't come down was that an old guy was ranting on about some legend and Luke was too polite to leave. Stupid, I know."

"Wait, there's an old man up there? What's he doing in there?"

"Talking about legends to whoever manages to find this cave. He lives in there." Tim said with a slight chuckle. His eyes narrowed and he observed, "You didn't come in after me."

"Of course not… I mean, well, I would have but…"

"_Oh, it's fine, Tim."_ Luke cut me off.

Tim shrugged and gave me a piercing look. "It's just that you seemed so gung-ho for the rescue and then you end up staying here-"

"Oh put a Sawk in it…" I grumbled.

Tim cracked a small smile and let the subject rest. Luke was amused as well. My partner motioned for me to sit down in the grass and I did. "Well now that that's solved, I was going to talk a little about the first Nessa, to calm Utopia's nerves and all."

I knew what he was up to so I didn't let that statement fool me. But I kept that hidden from him, acting like I had no clue what kind of psychological trick he was pulling.

Luke's expression sank from gleeful to somber. "That's what you're going to talk about?"

"Just a bit." He turned to me and continued, "As you can imagine, she has passed on. I won't talk about it too much for Luke's sake. But still…"

"So Nessa was your sister?" I asked as consolingly as possible to the ghost.

He nodded slowly. "I was young, so I don't remember her all that much."

"You know that our families were close. Our fathers were childhood friends and our families would become like one big family. Well my father's friend got married and had a kid before my dad. Then my dad found a wife and I came along. The first child in our merged families was Nessa. In fact, she helped a little with raising Luke and played with me." He rolled his shoulders and said, "I don't have any pictures of her."

"So what happened?" I leaned forward. _Why wasn't she mentioned before? And Luke seemed to take it very hard hearing about this Nessa. It must have been bad for such a sweet and cheerful ghost to be this subdued._

Tim raised his eyebrows as if to insult my stupidity. "What else do you think? Me."

"Oh, so you're taking the blame for the deaths of your mom, your pet, and now your childhood friend. No wait, two childhood friends? Dude, you can't blame yourself unless you willingly attacked her!"

Tim didn't like my argument and went on without acknowledging it. "But the main reason she died was in a car accident." Luke flinched a little at the mention.

"There, you didn't have anything to do with it." I proclaimed.

"Everyone I'm close to dies." Tim snapped back. He gave me a meaningful look, and then turned back to his friend. Tim sighed and said, "Well, that's the story about Nessa. Both Luke and I were young so we don't remember much more on the subject."

I shrugged. That seemed a little anti-climactic but hey, it was a touchy subject for the both of them. I could sort of respect that… except I still wanted to know more about it. _And these Dimitri people… how did they go on with both kids being killed? Did Luke and Tim have any sort of therapy to recover from the loss of Nessa? And what good was it naming a dragon after her?_

"Now that that's settled and we survived seeing Axew in that dark cave, do you want to see Chargestone or go back to Mistralton?" The dark-haired dude said.

_Ooh, what to say, what to say? Did I want to spend time with Tim, who had threatened me with dragons twice today, or go back to Mistralton and let my Pokémon relax? Did I want to give Tim a second chance or teach him a lesson about taking me in a dragon cave? Oh decisions decisions…_ "I'll head back. Len needs a little healing after that harrowing battle." I said and felt proud of using a word like 'harrowing'. Boy that made me sound smart!

"Ok then, Archeops can take you."

"One day Pebbles will evolve and I won't need to rely on you to taxi me around." I mused out loud.

"You'd be surprised how strong Pokémon are. If you tried I bet Pebbles could fly you around already." Tim said whimsically, but still called out Archeops for me to ride on.

He didn't pull out Sigilyth for himself and I asked with feigned surprise, "You aren't going to escort me back?"

"No." He said flatly and turned back to the cave. "Archeops is enough company. Goodbye for now." Then without any further farewell he went back into the cave.

Well, Tim was the last thing from a gentleman, I knew that. _And that was a pretty abrupt farewell. Was he mad or just blunt today?_

Luke floated up to me and thought, "_Sorry about the whole dragon issues. It's been twice in a row and I wouldn't blame you for wanting to get away from us… But we're still friends, right?"_

"Yeah. Well, I should get Len taken care of…" I replied. I kind of wanted to get away from the cave quickly, but didn't want to appear rude to Luke. _Oh well, that excuse would have to do._ Len jumped back into his Pokéball and I jumped on Archeops. In a matter of moments I was back in the air, flying back to a hopefully more peaceful day ahead.

…

Archeops landed right outside the Pokémon center in Mistralton, a very nice landing at that. I still wondered at the fact that this bird had been a small Archen that had attacked me on the first night of this challenge. Now I was flying on his back. I got off the fossil bird's back and patted his head. "Well, thanks, Archeops. You and I have come a long way in less than a week. I'm glad I can trust you to fly on."

"Ar-ar… cheops che-ar." The bird admitted with a hint of embarrassment. It cawed loudly and took back to the sky and back to find his master.

I nodded to myself and hurried to the nurse inside to get my Palpitoad looked at. The poor toad had defended me against a fierce dragon and he needed some care. I found the nurse waiting patiently at the counter and gave her my team of four Pokémon.

Just the thought of only four Pokémon made me frown. _Maybe I should find a Pokémon that had an advantage against that ice dragon for protection… after all; Ouri's whole team was pretty much arranged for fighting the beast. Maybe it would be a good idea for me to find a Pokémon with an advantage. Then I could even fight off Tim's dragon if he got any ideas. But what Pokémon would I get…?_

After what felt like a short time of musing, my Pokémon were given back to me all healed and ready to go. I thought to go outside and enjoy the last of the nicer days of fall before it started getting cold.

In the lobby a TV was on and blaring a little louder than normal. I would have ignored it if I hadn't heard the keyword 'Icirrus'. Suddenly I was interested and I looked more closely at the news channel and what they had to say about that town. I mean, it was my partner's hometown after all.

A serious lady anchor continued with the story. "-After the reports of a large snowstorm coming to cover Icirrus in its normal snowfall was predicted to arrive earlier, the DragonSpiral Tower meeting has been moved up to Monday to avoid getting trapped in the snow."

A fellow anchor, male this time, said in a slightly more conversational voice, "And for those of you who don't know what meeting this is, it is the third annual meeting between the two dragons of ideals and truth. It was established that this meeting would be held to simply agree that the two opposite dragons would keep their peace for another year."

The serious anchor-lady added, "And it has been reported that the owner of the white dragon Reshiram will not be attending. Instead, the renowned breeder and author Eugene Kwester, who has just returned from his Abyssal Ruins dive, to take his place. There have been no objections to this change of advocate."

They went on the talk about the meaning behind the person called Black dropping the chance to meet on the tower and why Eugene was getting so much attention lately. I frowned and thought something about this was vaguely important. _What __**was**__ with Eugene (Malcolm's cousin) getting so much hype lately? Was it important that this meeting was moved up? And there was a meeting where the tamers of Reshiram and Zekrom came together? I'd be sure to avoid that!_

I shrugged and shoved those musings to the back of my mind. I didn't need to bother myself with things that were happening elsewhere in Unova unless I was going there. And as far as I could tell, I was staying in Mistralton with a little side trip to Lacunosa. Icirrus wasn't my concern.

I walked out into the chilly afternoon and sighed happily. _I think I'll find the lake and then let my Pokémon out to play and eat. They need a break from battling._ And I did just that. I found the lake and set the four Pokémon to wander as they pleased. Though, I had to keep an eye out for Sundazzle running away.

That little firebug could be very wily when she wanted to. Len enjoyed splashing in the water and having the time of his life. It made me happy to see such joy in a little act of splashing water. If only my life could be as simple as that; splashing water around making me happy and forget all of my cares.

Pebbles flew around in the air, circling where I was and she seemed to be scouting out the area for other life forms. I could only guess that she wanted to bring pain to anything she saw…

And Ole, being the creeper fish that he was, sat a little ways off in the grass and occasionally sent me that eerie smile. I tried to not get creeped out, but that fish always seemed to catch me off-guard. Once again I wondered if Ole would be better off in the wild, smiling creepily at other Pokémon. I don't know what kept Ole in the team other than his electric typing to even out the team…

I leaned against a tree and closed my eyes for a little. _There was no harm in a little eye-resting, was there?_ I wanted to try to think about Tim and his dragon phobia beating tactics, and then again I didn't want to. It was as if my own mind wanted to block things I didn't like to even go into. And I didn't want to think about dragons. Even with Jamie saying stuff about Kyurem and things, I was up to **here** about it. Even though I loved the new friends I had made in this contest, I wanted things to become more simplistic. Almost back to way things were. I mean, things in my past of Pokémon training were relatively simple.

_What would happen after the contest? Would all of us trainers go our separate ways and never see each other again? Would we travel together? No, we couldn't travel together. I had only three badges and only Tim would endure a round-trip of Unova to enhance my collection. Even Malcolm had seven badges! What if this nice friendship only lasted as long as the contest?_

I sighed and opened my eyes just to make sure my Larvesta wasn't burning down the forest for fun or otherwise escaping to fight other Pokémon for the heck of it. But no, she seemed to be content enough sniffing and chewing on grass.

I closed my eyes again and continued my train of thought. _So what did it matter what friends I made here? If I wasn't ever going to see them again, why even go into that?_ I frowned. _That's probably how Tim thinks, though with that added thought of killing those he gets close to… _But still, staying away from friends seemed to make a little more sense. I was only setting myself up for sadness of splitting up with my friends. Ouri, Malcolm, Gregor, and Tim would all go one way or another. Most except Tim would go into Pokémon battling as a career, either as a gym leader or a champion. I wasn't cut out for that, I knew that much.

"Hey, Utopia? You asleep?" I heard a soft and very close voice.

I jumped and looked in surprise at how someone could sneak up on my without me hearing. Somehow I guessed before opening my eyes that it was Malcolm. It wasn't the voice that gave it away, more like the manner in which the greeting was given. I grinned up at my red-headed friend and said, "Hi, I was just thinking… What are you doing here?"

Malcolm flashed a wide smile and sat down next to me. "Oh, nothing much. I was in the neighborhood and thought that since you encountered a dragon today that… you know. Are you angry at Tim for what he did?" he rambled.

_Great, the topic of dragons never seemed to disappear._ "Well, he did tell me beforehand that he wanted to help…"

"But taking a dragon into his team was just cruel! I'd deck him if he did that again to you!" He said with passion.

I decided to keep the news of Mistralton Cave a secret from Malcolm, just in case. _Sure Tim was stupid today, but he didn't need a fist in the face to remind him of that. _"It's ok, really. I think Tim just was having a bad day…"

"And then you defend him!" Malcolm objected. "You don't have to be nice to him. You can tell me the truth… does he hurt you?"

I laughed a little. If only Malcolm knew the truth. _Sure Tim had attacked me in the past, but…_ I just couldn't seem to explain how I could still trust Tim to Malcolm. "No, nothing like that. He's a friend and he's allowed bad days…"

"Flaunting your phobia in your face isn't a bad day!"

"Just let me try to explain, ok?" I asked kindly. Malcolm nodded and stared at me, wanting an explanation. I shrugged and said, "Tim and I haven't been the best of friends, but I trust him…" _I trusted him with my life… _"And he's just trying to help… He and Jamie think that something bad is going to happen so he's trying to help…"

He shook his head slowly. "I sure hope you're going to be ok for making that choice. I wouldn't trust that guy if I were you."

"You and Tim really need to at least try to tolerate each other. You two are hopeless." I laughed a little.

Malcolm smiled along and changed the subject. "Hey, can I let my Pokémon hang out with yours? I bet Cottonee would like to meet your Palpitoad."

"I don't see anything wrong with it."

Malcolm pulled out four Pokéballs and his team came out. His Darmanitan, Conkeldurr, Cottonee, and Braviary all gave their cries and slowly calmed down from expecting a battle. Then they went about their own ways, almost showing that they were four different Pokémon instead of a team. But that was my team too. There wasn't a hint of camaraderie between any of my team other than Len and myself.

"I wish my team was a little more like a working team." Malcolm mused. Once again his thoughts were surprisingly similar to mine. The red-head continued, "Cottonee is a sweet little thing while the rest are battle-hardy. Braviary is kind of the leader and brave, but none of my Pokémon seem to want to follow him. Then Conkeldurr got proud after he evolved and seems to fight with a mind of his own. Then Darmanitan is the friendliest of them all, but sometimes he forgets his own strength." Malcolm continued to ramble about his Pokémon and I listened politely.


	47. Heritage

**Utopia's POV**

"Oh by the way," Malcolm interrupted himself from his ramble on his Pokémon, "Have you met the move family?"

I snapped out of daze and asked, "Move family what?"

"Yeah, there is a family here in Mistralton that specializes in teaching Pokémon moves that they might have forgotten or moves that you don't want. I was just thinking that if Tim pulls out his dragon again that you could teach one of your Pokémon an ice attack."

If only Malcolm knew that Tim's dragon was the least of my problems. Kyurem, if hit by an ice-attack, would sustain little damage. But then again, it actually could be a good idea. If I ever had a run-in with an Axew like earlier today, then an ice-move in my party would be handy. I could even fight in a match with Gregor against his dragon… I nodded. "That sounds good… though what Pokémon of mine could learn an ice type attack?"

Malcolm sent me a warm smile. "I was thinking about it before I found you, so I did a little research on it. I'm afraid none of your Pokémon can learn an ice or dragon move on their own, through tutoring, or TMs. But I have found a last resort." He reached into his pack and pulled out a small disk. His eyes glowed as he explained with gusto, "This is Hidden Power. And there's a small chance that one of your four Pokémon has a dragon-type hidden power."

I blinked a few times, showing my stupidity with familiarity with this move. "Uh… come again?"

Malcolm seemed very proud to be in the know and stood up. "And wouldn't you know it, there's a guy who hangs out at this very Pokémon center that can tell what type your Pokémon's hidden power will be!"

I still wasn't following his logic. "So… hidden power is a move that has different types?"

"According to the Pokémon that uses it. If you don't have this TM, then I'll lend mine to you. They are reusable after all." He said.

My spirits lifted. Maybe that was a pretty good plan. I wouldn't have to get a whole new Pokémon to protect myself, just find out if one of my current Pokémon could have a nature that would come out ice or dragon. _Why didn't I find out about this miracle move before? _I stood to my feet and called my Pokémon to me. "Guess what?" I asked the group of four Pokémon. "Malcolm's suggested that we go to the Pokémon center to find out is any of you Pokémon have an ice or dragon nature for the hidden power ability. You'll be defending me from my biggest fear!"

"Palpitoad palpi pal!" Len exclaimed. I could tell that he wanted to be the Pokémon to be depended on to save me. Heck, **I** wanted him to have an ice or dragon nature simply because he was my best and most loyal Pokémon.

I gave Malcolm a grin and said, "Thanks so much for the suggestion. I hope it turns out well, and then I'll be much more protected in the future."

"Anything for your safety." Malcolm wrapped his arm around my shoulders and gave me a strange, deep look.

I blushed and looked down. "Well… thanks for looking after me…"

"Hey, it's not over yet. We need to see if any of your Pokémon can defend you. Come on, I'll join you. And if one of my Pokémon ends up having the nature I'll let you borrow it." He jovially replied. He patted me on the back and called his Pokémon in their spheres.

I did the same for my Pokémon and we left for the Pokémon center. Once again my imagination was whirling around about Malcolm. He was a breath of fresh air to be around after hanging out with Tim so much. He liked to talk, unlike my partner, and he certainly cared about his Pokémon. _Not that Tim didn't, but I could tell that Malcolm knew his team like a family. And Malcolm was also pretty protective of me. He and Ouri kind of helped me through my breakdown earlier today…_

_Not to mention… Malcolm gave me my favorite birthday present. That fluffy Minccino will stay with me forever! Sure it was shallow to judge someone by their present… I don't know_. _Maybe now that I think about it… if Malcolm and I were partners and he knew that Kyurem was coming, how would he react? Would he try to pull a 'Tim' and try to force me over my fear? Would he try to protect me? _

I paused and thought, _He's my friend… should I tell him about an impending Kyurem visit? Should I worry him with my problems? What if he overreacts, especially since I'm planning on going back to my hometown tomorrow_?

"What are you thinking of? You seem kind of serious." Malcolm observed. That was another thing I liked about him as a friend, he could read me better than Tim could. _Or was that just my imagination?_

"Oh, I was just thinking about the challenge…" I admitted. Again, I hated lying to him. Though, I could consider this whole thing with my fear a challenge as well… But he would obviously see it as the Skyla Challenge.

"Don't sweat it; I'm sure things will be ok. You've got enough spunk to get into the top five. I still think that us five, even that rotten Tim, should be up at the very last round." He said so comfortingly that I could almost believe him. _Actually, Jamie had said that Kyurem would show up sometime soon, but would that be after the challenge was over? And __**where**__ would it show its frightful face_?

We entered the familiar building and Malcolm led the way to a nice-looking lobby that I hadn't gone to before. It was more of a meeting room actually, set up with a large table and lots of chairs surrounding it. The sole occupant was an older man, sipping coffee and reading a newspaper.

"Hello, sir." Malcolm called the man's attention politely. "I was just wondering if you could inspect my friend's Pokémon to see what kind of hidden power they have. She needs a Pokémon that can use ice or dragon powers."

The man stood up and sighed slightly. "Very well. I am an expert on these matters." He walked forward and waved his hand like a gentleman. "Can I see the Pokémon in question?"

"Right." I said and took out all four of my Pokémon for him to see. The man stooped and began to inspect Ole. _Please let Len have the right nature. Please let Len have ice or dragon…_ I mentally pleaded.

"Your Stunfisk, when using hidden power, would have a dark nature."

"I knew it all along!" I pouted at the fish. _I've got my eye on you!_ I thought. Ole in return gave his award-winning creeper smile, which in turn made me flinch. "That's it, you've got dark nature for hidden power, and you get back in the ball…" I said and returned the Pokémon quickly.

"You don't get along with you Stunfisk very well, do you?" Malcolm observed.

I shook my head and looked at the man inspecting my Pokémon again. Up next was Len.

"Your Palpitoad can use a steel-type hidden power." The man concluded.

My heart sank. "Steel?" I looked at the disappointed sound toad and shrugged. "Oh well… I guess that's just who you are… right?"

"Pal…"

"It's ok, I'm not angry at you." I tried to think optimistically and returned the guy so I wouldn't have to look at his little pouty face. _Well, Sundazzle and Pebbles could have the nature I'm looking for, right?_ I thought.

"Your Larvesta…" the man left off, and then smiled. "This Pokémon can use dragon-type hidden power."

I blanched at that. _Sundazzle, my most disobedient and difficult Pokémon, had a dragon hidden power? But… of all the Pokémon I could depend on to help me, she was the least!_ _Why cruel fate, why?_ "Um, maybe you could check my Vullaby too?" I hoped that Pebbles could possibly have the same if not an ice-type power so that I didn't have to rely on-

"This Vullaby can use poison."

I opened and closed my mouth a few times before I could even grasp what I wanted to say.

Malcolm thanked the guy for me and I returned both of my Pokémon. We went back to the main entrance and I sat down on the waiting area couches.

"Hey, if you want you can teach your Pokémon hidden power now." Malcolm said and held out the small disk. "You just put it on the Pokémon's forehead and the move is learned."

I called out the little fire bug and placed the small disk on her forehead just as instructed. I didn't want to talk to her and simply returned her to her Pokéball and gave the disk back to Malcolm. _Oh the humanity, why Sundazzle? Of all Pokémon I could possibly have had on my team, why her?_

"So, you don't think you can depend on your Larvesta to fight for you?" Malcolm asked. Once again he proved to be one that hated silence.

"Yeah… I wanted Len to be the Pokémon who would fight for me… but…"

"I think Sundazzle could fight for you." Malcolm gave me a thumbs-up and continued, "Remember on our first night here? Sundazzle torched Tim's shirt. It was almost like her saying that he was a bad dude. I think if she torched Tim's shirt before, she would fight for you."

"But that was on her own whim. She's never really listened to me… maybe I should go to a Pokémon-trainer counselor." I mused. "Never listened…" I frowned and revisited that one tiny occurrence yesterday. One point I had told Theo the Pidove where to look for a plane. Luke said that I had commanding powers of a sort, and Tim called it 'utopia powers'. _But what had I done? How did I do it?_

"You're spacing again." Malcolm observed.

"I know…" I mumbled back. _Maybe this could work out. After all, if I could do that little trick again, maybe I could make Sundazzle obey me. What happened that I could somehow command the Pidove? Could I do it again?_ I looked at Malcolm and thought hard_. Should I let him on my weirdness? Should I try to ask for his help?_ There was no question with whether I trusted Malcolm, I already did. I took a deep breath and said, "Um, Malcolm?"

"Hm?"

"I… can I let you in on a secret? I'm trying to figure it out myself and…"

"Of course!" He exclaimed, his green eyes glowing.

"Well…" I started and tried to put together words in comprehensible sentences. "I think that I can get my Larvesta to listen to me, but it's hard to explain… Ok, here's the run-down. One time in that challenge, where I got attacked by the Tornadus, I had to direct a Pidove to find a plane in a tree. A moment or so I did something and Luke said that I somehow had commanding skills…"

Malcolm looked as confused as I was. "What?" He asked politely.

"I know, it's weird and all… but there was a moment where I felt weird and it ended up that I somehow gained commanding powers…" I frowned and tried to remember what I did to make it happen.

"Did you put your hands together by some chance?"

I jumped at the unfamiliar voice and saw that Malcolm's partner Archie (I think) was joining our little group on the couches. He was the one who asked that strange question. "Sorry, but I was just curious. You were talking quite strangely." The sailor-looking guy said. His vocab use seemed a little off, then I remembered that he had been in Sinnoh before coming here.

I shrugged. "I might have, why do you ask?"

Archie took a deep breath and asked, "I don't want to spook you, but is your family from Sinnoh by chance?"

_Another out-of-the-blue question._ "What does that have anything to do with that?"

The sailor shrugged and explained, "I've heard of a certain line of people that trace their line to a man called Damos. It's rumored that these descendants can have a certain connection with Pokémon."

"I'm not sure if that would be me…" I admitted. I mean, sure my family was probably from over the sea, but I couldn't be that specific. My family might have even come from Kanto or Hoenn for all I knew. I couldn't jump up and say, 'that's got to be it!'.

"In Sinnoh there is also an Aura Guardian in training called Riley. Maybe you might have some connection there." Archie continued to brainstorm.

"But she's from Unova." Malcolm countered. "Right, Utopia?"

I smiled nervously at the red-head. "Well… not really… I thought I was."

The sailor shrugged. "Sinnoh is a nice region. Well, if that didn't help, I'll be off."

I frowned. _What was with the clapping together of hands nonsense? Did I do that unintentionally? And if I did, did that prove that my family was from Sinnoh?_ Well, I wasn't going to jump to conclusions. I didn't want to be so forward and assuming for my heritage. If only my family could give me a straight answer…

…

The rest of the day was pretty usual. All ten of the trainers ate together, Skyla was out and about, so the Gym trainers talked about tomorrow being a completely free day. Tim seemed pretty happy to have explored a new cave, but stayed away from me since Malcolm was near me. After the meal we all separated and I avoided Tim and Malcolm. I just wanted some time to think.

The evening consisted me and my Pokémon in my room just hanging out. Len seemed sad about the fact that he wasn't the right Pokémon to use ice or dragon hidden power. Pebbels was content to perch up high and eat her Pokémon food. Ole… you would know by now what he does in his free time. And Sundazzle, the little bug that somehow was entrusted with dragon-fighting, returned to her nest up on the bunk.

I stared into space and tried to sort of the whole 'utopia powers' concept and Sundazzle listening to me. I couldn't get the idea of the two options in Sinnoh for my family heritage. I simply couldn't. Damos and Riley… either one could hold an answer for me. I could find out about myself without fighting past my parents…

I finally went with the idea and headed down to the computer lab. I needed to look up stuff about these two guys. My curiosity was getting the better of me _(__when does that ever happen?)_. It was about nine o'clock and I figured that I wouldn't need all that much time to type in a few names to satisfy my wonderings.

I logged into the computer and quickly pulled up the internet. I searched the name 'Damos' and started scrolling through some pages. I clicked on an article from a news-site and began to read. It wasn't all that interesting and seemed to have nothing to do about this mentioned Damos guy.

The next article I clicked on was actually an archeological type-site. I smirked and thought that Tim would like to know about this website. The article started out with a picture of some people carved in stone, honoring some sort of goat-like creature. The headline was, "Archeologists still puzzled at time-contrary carving in Machina Town."

I was instantly curious and continued reading. "In the Sinnoh Region there is a town surrounded by rich lands and an even richer past. But that past is one of the more confusing things. This stone, depicting almost modern-day people helping with Damos's task of returning the Jewel of Life, stands erect and gives thanks to people that live today for their aid.

"This would be utterly astounding had not the guardian of the shrine, a girl named Sheena, come forward and said that she and a few other Pokémon trainers had time traveled to change the past for the better. It is not unheard of for time-traveling, thanks to Celebi and Dialga, so the controvery calmed down." The article continued to talk about the archeological finds and ended with a little note that signified that this article was translated from the native Sinnoh language.

"Time Travel?" I mused. "And what are Celebi and Dialga?" Well I had no further ideas on who this Damos guy other than some stuff about a jewel of life. I decided to search things about that jewel and see what I could find. This time more comprehensible results came up. The online encyclopedia had something on it, so I started reading it.

It was strange and entrancing to read about a Pokémon that saved the world from a meteor and was in turn saved by a human… this human called Damos. Then the jewel was said to be created for Damos to bring life to his home. Then a whole fiasco over giving the jewel back ensued, resulting in a near death of the Pokémon Arceus.

Then I paused at a note that finally connected with my full attention. It was mentioned in the page that Damos could somehow connect with hearts of Pokémon and that his descendant Sheena could as well. _That's got to be something…_ I mused. _But how do they connect with the hearts-?_

I clicked on the highlighted 'connecting with Pokémon hearts' link and came to a new page. Suddenly two pictures popped up, one of a light-purple haired girl and a brown-haired girl. The page said that they were both said to have similar powers to connect with Pokémon's hearts. One was Anabel, a person from Hoenn, and the other was Sheena. _That's the same Sheena_. I thought. On the part about Sheena, it said that Sheena clapped her hands together and chanted 'transcend the confines of time and space'.

I paused. A weird idea came into my head. _What if I tried that?_ I shook my head and said to myself, "No, don't be stupid…" It would feel strange and almost embarrassing. I didn't want to try it out. Then my curiosity fought back. If I tried it out and nothing happened, then I wouldn't have that kind of connection. It would be simple as that.

I glanced nervously around the deserted computer lab. _No one will see me, right?_ I breathed in and slowly put my hands together as if praying. _I can't believe that I'm doing this…_ I thought. I looked at the screen again and felt a twinge of dread, as if I was trying out demonic powers. "Transcend… the confines of… time and space?" I muttered.


	48. Homecoming

**Utopia's POV**

After I muttered my little chant, my vision swam. I couldn't see where I was per say, but I could somehow see living beings in their proximity to me surrounded in a multi-colored fog. How did I know that they were living being and not just some illusion? I don't know. But somehow I could see blue wind-like things indicating where people and Pokémon were. If I wanted to, I could reach out and connect…

I panicked and I squeezed my eyes shut. The illusion disappeared and I threw my hands apart and slumped in my chair, almost instantly exhausted. My heart was pounding and I was at a loss for words or thoughts. It was just so odd and unexplainable, what I had just done… _Was it some kind of magic? Did this mean that I did have some connection to Damos? Or was I simply going insane?_

I gulped and stared at the screen. I glared at the page and closed it. I wish I could do more to punish the screen for the fright it caused me, but it's a website. What could I do to it other than close it angrily? I logged off the lab computer and summoned up my strength to run up to my room. Just like in Mistralton Cave, time blurred and I was back in the safety of my room and the comfort of my Pokémon.

I sat on the floor of my room and panted. I vowed never to do it again. It was just so strange and unnatural… _What had happened anyway? What did that prove? Had Tim snuck something in my food or some psychic Pokémon put me in a daze?_ I **had** heard of Pokémon hypnotizing people before. I gulped and my imagination began to run away. _Gregor had a Gothorita, a Pokémon known to hypnotize people. Maybe that was some trick of his…_

"Pal?"

I looked up and saw my loyal Pokémon standing close. I instinctively hugged the toad close and started crying. I don't know why I cried, but I simply did. I was scared at this strange thing that I could do/had experienced and Len was right there. Just like always the little toad was there for me. I sobbed on his head-bump until I felt calm enough to talk a little.

"Len… I don't know what or who I am anymore…" I admitted sadly then sank to sobs again. I really didn't. _Why didn't I know this about myself earlier? Did mom and dad know that I could do this strange vision thing? Could they do it as well? Why did I have to find out about after Archie mentioned it and I looked it up on the internet? __**Why?**_

"Palpi pal toad pal." Len seemed to be trying to comfort me.

"Oh Len… if only I could understand you…" I sniffed.

Len started sending out low sound vibrations as if to soothe me. I hugged the Pokémon closer and closed my eyes, taking up the sound as an escape from the confusion. Just listening to the vibrations… it soothed me…

I knock came from my door and I opened my eyes. I frowned in confusion at myself lying on the floor with Len greeting me happily. _What time is it?_ I thought. The clock on the wall read nine o'clock. _Well, how was that possible? I had went down to the computer lounge at nine… was I somehow caught in a time warp?_

"Hey Utopia, are you awake? We should leave for Lacunosa soon." The voice on the other side of the door asked.

_Landorus, was it Sunday already?_ I jumped up and looked out the window. Sure enough, the sun was up. I had slept on the floor all night! "Oh um…" I said to Ouri and rushed to look a little more presentable. My clothes were a little smelly and I hadn't taken a shower yet. "I'll be out in an hour, ok? I just woke up."

"Ok." The voice of Ouri came back.

I started to scramble to get ready for the day. I wanted to forget all about last night and pretend that it was all a dream. I couldn't use any sort of strange powers like that one Sheena person on the internet. It was **just **a dream. I might not have even left my room to look up things in the computer lab in the first place. I told myself that I had fallen asleep and dreamed it all up. _Well, I did have a weird imagination after all…_

After I had assured myself that I was simply crazy last night and I got ready for the day, I gathered up my stuff to find Ouri. My Pokémon were in their balls, some emergency supplied were in my smaller bag, and I looked ok for sleeping on the floor. I opened the door and saw Ouri waiting for me.

"Hi, been a bit of a sleepy-head today?" He asked.

"Yeah, I had this weird dream…" I smiled back. "Well, sorry for waking up late, let's head out."

Ouri shrugged and said, "Don't you want to tell your friends where you are going or say goodbye?"

"Oh right." I laughed nervously. I walked out of my room and looked around the hall. "Do you know where they are?"

"Malcolm and Gregor are down in the lobby. Tim's who knows where. That's all that I can think of." My friend said and waved me down the stairs. "My Swanna is already outside and ready to take off when you are."

"Ok, thanks," I replied and descended the stairs to find Malcolm and Gregor. Sure they might be a bit worried for me in Lacunosa, but I was with Ouri and I knew my own hometown pretty well. And why was Tim gone? I would think that he would want to tag along or maybe tell me about his adventures in Mistralton. Or maybe he was avoiding me because I avoided him last night at dinner. Oh well, there was nothing I could do about where my partner wanted to be. He already knew where I was headed anyways. Gregor and Malcolm still needed to be informed.

I found Malcolm talking in his leader-style voice and trying to group together a few of the trainers to do a little group battling for the free day. Gregor was in the group and I decided to head over just to say hi and goodbye to him. I tapped Gregor's shoulder and he smiled kindly at me.

"Hello, Utopia. Are you thinking about this battle tournament Malcolm is suggesting?" the hero-nerd asked.

I shook my head. "I'm hanging out with Ouri at my hometown today. I just wanted to let you know and say goodbye. I'll see you either later today or tomorrow."

"Thanks for telling me then." He replied. He paused and said, "You feel much better after that dragon scare yesterday, right?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"Ok, see you then. Have fun in Lacunosa."

_He remembered where my hometown was? _Wait, I shouldn't be surprised, Gregor was the tactician that was able to out-wit Tim. He would be smart enough to remember that little bit about me. "Thanks. And could you tell that to Malcolm for me? He seems a little preoccupied right now."

"No problem."

"Thanks again," I waved and headed for the door. Malcolm didn't see me and I emerged into the chilliness of October. Ouri and his large white bird were waiting for me. _This might be a long flight, but it'll be fun._ I figured.

…

The ride was surprisingly short for traveling all the way from one end of Unova to the other. However, it was really, really, ripping-skin-off-your-face fast. Ouri's Swanna certainly knew how to save time. I wasn't all that pleased though, I felt sure that I had swallowed a bug or two and my hair (even though it was tied up in a pony-tail) felt frazzled.

Swanna broke from its hyper-speed and fluttered in a circle before finding the familiar walkways to land on. Once I had recovered from the shock of high-speed travel, I stared around my old home, nostalgia rising. I could see the little candy shop where I loved to talk with the clerk and try to get free candy. There was where I flew my failure of a first kite. And there was the old school I went to. _Wow, I could spend a while here. And I'm glad Ouri's here instead of Tim._

"Brings back memories, huh?" my guitarist friend grinned. He returned his bird and pointed to a cluster of houses. "Let's drop by my house first, then we can walk around how you like. The playground will still be open, but just barely."

_Oh the playground!_ I remembered that place. It was my favorite place to go to in the summer. I would play on the equipment and play on the monkey bars, pretending I was a Pansear. "Yeah!" I agreed quickly. _This was much better than anything else I could have done in Mistralton! _

Ouri and I navigated through the raised walkways to find his house. On the way we passed a few people that Ouri knew and he greeted them. The faithful police officer waved to us and said, "'Afternoon."

"Hi Officer Hawes." I replied. "It's me, Utopia. I'm visiting." I had known this guy as a lazy cop at first when I lived here, but one time a group of wild Bouffalant (another reason to be scared of those beasts) charged and threatened to tear up our wall. But Officer Hawes protected the town by summoning his Sawk and defeated every last one of them. After that I kind of picked little flowers for him and the people of Lacunosa honored the officer. Sure he had very little to guard against in this town, but when duty called he didn't shirk.

The officer remembered me and gave me a wide grin. "Oh my stars, is that really the girl who gave me flowers? And are you a trainer now?"

"Yup, I've got three badges and a team of four Pokémon." I would have continued to socialize with him, but I wanted to see Ouri's family again. "I'll stop by later. Nice to see you again." I waved and followed Ouri.

"Good to see you too, Miss Utopia." Hawes called back.

I smiled to myself and was happy that someone recognized me and seemed to be so proud of me. Why didn't my secretive parents ever show that much affection? Well, at least I didn't have to deal with them. They were in Anville Town, probably deciding how to keep my questions at bay. _I wonder if they can use those weird powers…_ I stopped reminded myself that I had agreed to consider the weirdness of last night was a dream.

"We're almost here." Ouri interrupted my thoughts with a grin. "My brother won't be here because he is in boot camp for security of Unova, but Sis is here." Ouri had an older brother that in the past looked out after us. Hearing that he was in the military shocked me and yet I almost expected it. From what I remembered of Ouri's brother, he would do well in the army. His little sister was a good friend of mine and I liked playing with her sometimes more than with Ouri –especially when we could play with our toys and dolls together.

"Great, I can't wait to see Jaya again!" I almost cheered. Wow, seeing this place again was making me so happy!

My green-haired friend smiled back. "Sometimes I wonder why you left in the first place. We could have journeyed the Unova region together, caught Pokémon…"

"I couldn't help if my dad needed a different job." I shrugged apologetically. Actually I was entertaining the idea of an alternate reality where Ouri and I start a Pokémon journey together, living out the trainer dream. Instead of being alone I could have had a friend who understood my fear of dragons. But then again, would I have received Len if that happened?

"I guess we can't change the past." Ouri said a little nostalgically.

"Yeah, unless you have a Celebi or Dialga, whatever those things are." I laughed a little. Oh Landorus, I kept on thinking that the whole thing last night was real. But that couldn't be real, so whatever my mind had conjured up about a Dialga and Celebi had to be imaginary too!

"What's a selebi and de-alga?" Ouri asked me, repeating the foreign words slowly.

"Haha, I don't know. I think I might have made them up…" I laughed nervously. "I've got a weird imagination…"

Ouri gave me a weird look that I completely deserved. "Um, ok? You writing a story or something?"

"No, I probably dreamed about a Celebi or Dialga that could have something to do with time…" I face-palmed and stopped talking. I had embarrassed myself enough.

"Well that's true about your imagination." Ouri laughed shortly and let the matter rest. "If you hadn't already guessed, I live in the same home I did when you knew me. And later today I've got to run a few errands, so will you be ok without me?"

"Of course, I can take care of myself." I said a little too confidently and shoot-down-ish. I quickly added, "You know, I've been training Pokémon on my own for a year now."

"Right, we are all grown up now. I shouldn't doubt your strength." He said with a calm that I found very reassuring_. He trusted me and that was it. He believed in me…_ I couldn't let that little phrase repeat in my head for a little. It gave me confidence as well that he was confident about my confidence. Confused yet?

My green-haired friend smiled and pointed to a near-by house. "And that's where you lived, right?"

I stared at the house in question and my nostalgia washed over me once again. Memories of playing out in the front lawn and tending to the flowers and picking weeds for a small allowance flooded my mind. I gasped a little at the house. It hadn't changed much in six years, though some shrubs and a small tree were in the front instead of flower beds. "Yeah…" I breathed. Oh, if only I could go inside and imagine all of my things in there. My toys and little adventures my toys had over the house. The games I played with Ouri and other friends I had forgotten about until now, I remembered them. I could even see the backyard in my mind-s eyes and picture it covered in snow… and the occasional Rufflet and Pidove would eat at the berries in our bushes… in my mind's eye.

"I know the family that lives there now, I'm sure later they won't mind you looking around."

I turned to Ouri and beamed at him. I refrained from hugging him, but just barely. "Oh really? Thanks, Ouri!"

He seemed pleased at my reaction and we went to his house about three houses down from mine. He opened the door for me and I entered. I was not expecting what I saw there.

Sure enough Ouri's parents and little sister were there, waiting to welcome me back. But what jolted me even more was that my parents, MY PARENTS, were waiting to welcome me as well. _But… My parents? What in Landorus's name were they…? What? Parents what? Parents?_

"Hello, Utopia!" Ouri's mom called out happily. She had light green hair that hung to her neck and curled in several ringlets and was dressed for baking something. She seemed to always be baking something. "Long time no see!" She exclaimed and discarded her oven mitts. She came up and gave me a huge hug.

"Hey Ouri, I see you brought your friend back!" Ouri's dad added. He was on the stouter and heavier side, but seemed to have that jolly feel that many people of his build had. He, like his son and wife, had green hair, cut short.

"Utopia! You're back!" Ouri's sis Jaya called out excitedly. The dark-green-haired girl popped up and joined the hug. She was only a few years younger than Ouri and almost ready to go out on a Pokémon journey of her own.

I accepted the hug and stared at my parents. Yup, they were who they were… just why were they back in Lacunosa? Dad had to work at the subways… right? Since when did…? Did Ouri call ahead and have them come for my enjoyment? Well they had kept this secret heritage from me and only after hearing about it from a person from Sinnoh did I have more clues to who I was. A stranger let me know more about my heritage than my parents. That's sad!

"Hi everyone." I said enthusiastically to the Greene family, then repeated myself with a more confused tone to my family, "Hi everyone…"

My mom, a plumper woman who was as tall as me, smiled and tried to act calm when she was obviously very nervous. My father nodded, a much more composed person and he could keep his emotions more in check. They wore their normal colors: navy blue, black, and white in varying patterns. I hadn't questioned why they only wore those three colors, in fact, before I had left on the Pokémon journey all of my clothes were navy blue, black, or white (or even a combination of the three).

My dad, who was shorter than both me and my mom, smiled at me, his salt-and-pepper whiskers twitching with happy familiarity. "I can guess that you are surprised to see us." He stated plainly.

"Well, Ouri invited us and we haven't seen you in such a long time…" My mom added in a fluster.

"You all are just in time for lunch, won't you join us?" Mrs. Greene said invitingly. "Then we can hear all about you over food."

I nodded, though something was creeping up in my mind once again. My 'dream' had shown that a person called Sheena wore our family's colors as well… actually –now that I think about it—I had even wore something similar when I was younger. _Could it be that there really was a connection? Ugh, I have to decide if it was a dream or not!_

**A/N: Guess what? It's the April of Fools! I would do an April Fool's joke here, but I'll save my fingers from typing out a lie. Anyway, enjoy the chapter and happy Fool's day. :)**

**Also, for Spring Break I visited my birthplace, so I drew from that experience to write Utopia's homecoming.**


	49. Connecting of Hearts

**Utopia's POV**

_Well, the Greenes certainly know how to make a slightly unpleasant meeting with my family more bearable._ Mrs. Greene was a pleasant and loving woman that usually gave hugs to everyone (and I mean everyone). And in a small town of Lacunosa, that was ok. Mr. Greene was also pleasant in his own way. I don't really know how to describe him other than he had his own personal charm. Jaya was a happy and hyper young girl that could ask nothing other than about my Pokémon. She had dreamed up her team and had even asked Ouri to catch her one or two for her journey. And of course Ouri was very agreeable and nice to talk with, though I didn't think he liked the idea of catching a Pokémon for Jaya.

With this overwhelmingly happy atmosphere, I made it through dinner (home-made cheesy casserole, some veggies, and bread) without getting emotional over my parents being so secretive. I was being asked about my Pokémon journey and how the challenge was going, so I didn't want to break the atmosphere.

"So what's your favorite Pokémon?" Jaya asked, her deep green eyes positively glowing.

I smiled and said, "Well I think my Palpitoad Len is the best Pokémon. Palpitoads in general are good too."

Jaya frowned a little and said, "They are ok Pokémon I guess. But I really really like Emolgas and Dwebbles and Sewaddles. Aren't they the best Pokémon ever? I want my starter Pokémon to be one of those, and then I'll have the best journey ever!"

"But isn't it popular to get your first Pokémon from a professor?" Ouri smiled at his little sister.

"I don't want a Snivy, Tepig, or Oshawott, I want a Dwebble or Sewaddle or Emolga." She pouted immaturely.

"And what do you want to be other than a trainer?" I asked with a hint of sadness. _Did she have a dream to shoot for?_

"Yeah, I'll be the best Pokémon trainer and have the best Pokémon around. I'll go to the league and become the champion. I'll be known everywhere!"

I inwardly sighed. She had the typical dream every young trainer had. _But did she have the skills to go all the way and become a champion? Was she afraid of dragon Pokémon like I was? Would she shy away from the Opelucid Gym?_

Ouri gave me a searching look and said with a smile, "Do you know that I want to do as a trainer?"

I shook my head and waited for him to answer. Something about his look made me know that his goal was different and very, very important to him. I wondered why he wanted to talk about it other than it seemed like the right time to. And why hadn't I asked him before?

"You see, living in this town has given me a goal… We've been living in fear of our dragon in the Giant Cavern. It's time that we stopped living in fear." He clenched his fist and said with more passion. "My team is based around defeating a dragon-ice Pokémon, and I plan to either destroy Kyurem or drive it away. Just anything to make us no long afraid to stay outside at night!"

I stared at my friend with admiration. _Yes, that was a good goal._ He wanted to help the people here and was fed up with being scared. And as a trainer he would do something about it. If only I could see my fear like that. I was unwilling to change my fears or remedy them, but Ouri was much stronger than I was…

My father gave me a meaningful look while my mom glared at him and acted strangely._ I still don't know what's wrong with them…everything seems to irritate mom._

Ouri's mom frowned a little. "And how soon are you planning to do this? You've only been on your Pokémon journey for around a year. You can't think of attacking the ice dragon until you have gotten much more practice. Experienced trainers have failed against Kyurem." She paused and added, "Even the great trainer Black doesn't go near that cave…"

"But I'll be different. I've already been training and planning for something to do against it." Ouri sent me a wide grin.

"You can't be thinking that Utopia would help in your scheme?" My mom shot in quickly.

Both Ouri and I answered a quick 'No!' to that. There was no way I was going to help with his brave plan. Tim was still trying to get me past dragons if not the big daddy dragon himself. I would be hopeless against Kyurem and I knew it. I still was helpless and weak.

"Good!" My mom huffed, clearly hiding something. I wanted to ask her what was upsetting her, but I held back.

Mrs. Greene frowned and said soflty to her son, "I still think that you should at least have some Pokémon League experience before you try to look into that dream of yours, Ouri. I don't want the worst to happen to you… Please promise me that you'll be careful and ready before setting foot in the Giant Chasm."

"Ok, mom," Ouri conceded, "I promise."

This pleased Mrs. Greene and she fell quiet. Mr. Greene looked at me and said, "And what do you want to do as a trainer, Utopia? It's rude for my kids to talk about their dreams without listening to yours."

For some reason my mind flashed to the Dimitris and the loss of Nessa and Luke. I could almost picture the Greenes if they had lost Ouri and Jaya and were depending on me to carry on the family dream. I gulped as I felt myself sympathizing with Tim once again.

I snapped out of my comparison and felt depressed again. "Well, I'm not sure…" _Oh uncertain past and future… that still hadn't changed._

"That's ok, honey," my dad consoled me. "The journey is the path to the destination." Oh, did I mention that my dad loved to spit out little teaching lessons? He loved me and all, but sometimes he relied on little wise sayings to get a point across and ended up coming across as preachy.

"Don't you want to go to the Elite Four?" Jaya asked, her green eyes wide with confusion.

I shrugged and admitted, "Well, I'm not the best battler. I've met some brilliant and strong people out there and I don't have a chance against them."

"You thinking of anyone in particular?" Ouri grinned a little playfully.

I saw this as an opportunity to show off that I had met and made some friends. "Tim is very smart and so is Gregor. And Malcolm has some of the strongest Pokémon I've ever seen." I paused and was about to say something to Ouri's credit, but I hadn't seen him battle. "I haven't seen you battle yet, so I don't know your fighting style."

"Who are these guys?" Jaya asked with an exaggerated wink. "And when did you travel with so many guy-friends?"

I flushed a little. I was expecting people to be proud of so many friends that I had, but now Jaya was seeing it as if I was way too associated with guys. "They are in the challenge at Skyla's gym. And I don't normally have so many friends but Malcolm's so nice and Tim's stuck with me and…"

"Malcolm Kwester is quite dashing, isn't he?" Ouri gave me a weighted look, as if already guessing that we were soul mates or something.

"Hey!"

Jaya jumped up and exclaimed, "You know a Kwester? How is he related to Eugene?"

My mom didn't like this news. "You are spending time with celebrities?"

"He's a cousin and what's wrong with hanging out with a near celebrity?" I retorted, trying to fight to be hear over the flood of questions. _Sheesh, it wasn't like I was dating anyone or anything. Why couldn't anyone understand that?_

"Nothing good can come of a person in the public eye, especially with that Eugene person taking up ownership of Reshiram for Black." Mom said with conviction. She had watched the same news channel that I had seen I suppose.

Or maybe that was a bigger deal than I was making it out to be. It was just a meeting of dragons in Icirrus. Just because Malcolm was a cousin to Eugene didn't mean anything to me. Well, ok that was a lie of sorts. Malcolm had some fame from his cousin, but that didn't make him any more likeable because of the fact, he simply got more attention.

"What's up with you?" I asked, bringing the issues of her state of mind to play. Something wasn't sitting well with her and she wasn't hiding it. "Why are you uptight mom?"

My dad answered for her. "We are simply concerned for you, Utopia."

"What are you protecting me from?" I snapped. There I went. I had said what I wanted to ask in private. _Thank you evil big mouth of mine._ _Landorus, this will be slightly awkward for Ouri's family. _

But I didn't want to visually back down even though my mind was much less sure. I wanted to finally get this solved. They were trying to protect me from something and were getting antsy as if I was getting close to the boundary. I narrowed my eyes and stared my mom down.

Mom became flustered and looked away from my gaze. Dad seemed to try to calm things down. Ouri and his family were surprised and not sure how to respond. I was left glaring at the two people who had raised me all of my life.

My rage hit the boiling point and I snapped, "While we are on this subject, why didn't you tell me that we're from Sinnoh?" I put my napkin on the table and exited the room quickly.

I couldn't bear the atmosphere I had just caused anymore and I couldn't keep my nerve. I had pretty much said everything that was on my mind in front of my friend's family and my own. I embarrassed myself and my parents. _I need to find a happy place. If I was Tim, I would find a cave. But I wasn't him. Where was a happy place for me?_

I nodded to myself and walked to my old house. This was Lacunosa and I was sure if I asked to look around a little the family wouldn't mind. People were accommodating here. Sometimes if a person got drunk at a bar a friend or random passerby would drive the drunk to their home or a motel. Lacunosa was simply friendly. _Why didn't any of that rub off on me like it had on Ouri?_ Even though I was still bitter at my family for their behavior, I wanted to see the old house and remember the good ol' days, when everything in the world seemed right.

I walked up to the familiar house and rang the doorbell. My heart pounded as I remembered so many things about the house: the nooks where I stored my toys, the places where I would play or watch TV, The back yard… The door opened and a fisherman opened it. "Uh, hello?" He asked.

"Oh, hi." I introduced myself lamely, "I'm Utopia Fletcher and I used to live here. I haven't been back here for a while so would you mind if I look around?"

"Oh, I guess not," the fisherman said and opened the door wider. "Just be sure to get inside somewhere else before sunset, ok little miss?"

"I know." I said kindly and stepped inside. What can I say, Lacunosa is a trusting place. In Castelia this would be seen as very dangerous, but this is a small northern town. I looked around the house and sighed happily. Sure the place was completely decorated differently, but I could still tell that I had lived here. I half-wondered if the marker stains on the wall were still in the bathroom or if they had been painted over.

The fisherman let me wander around without a word, though I could tell he was curious. I visited the main rooms, took a gander at my old room, checked to see if the markers were still on the bathroom (which they weren't), and finished the tour with a long gaze at where I would play with my toys the most: the living room. Everything seemed so small now that I had seen it again for the first time in six years.

I asked to go to the backyard, and then I promised to be off and stop bugging him. The fisherman allowed me to go and insisted that I wasn't doing any harm. The backyard was changed from what I remembered: the bushes that held the berries the birds ate in the winter were gone and the grass was replaced by rocks. There were a few statues decorating the back, but the porch was still there. I sat down on one of the chairs and stared. I simply stared and let memories return to me.

_Maybe I should do this more often._ I mused. _This is very refreshing to do…_

I heard a doorbell ring and the fisherman went to the door, probably wondering why he was so popular today. I tuned out the conversation until I heard the voice of Ouri calling out my name_. So he had come to find me._ I turned around in the chair and saw the green-haired teen waving to me through the house.

"Utopia, I think you and I need to talk. Then your parents want to talk to you as well, but all in good time."

I sighed and slowly got up from the seat. I didn't really want to interrupt my own nostalgia, but I did probably owe Ouri an explanation. I thanked the fisherman for his time and apologized before following Ouri out the door. I glanced back to the house a little more before looking at my friend.

He gave me a strange and searching look. "So what was that all about earlier?"

I sighed, letting my shoulders sink. "My family isn't as perfect as yours… I'm convinced they've been lying to me about something…" I mumbled. I didn't want to talk about it all that much, despite the fact that Ouri was supporting and simply there to hear me.

Ouri hooked my arm in his and started walking. "Let's go to that park to talk about it."

"Whatever…" I didn't fight his lead. "Say, how did you know I was at my old home?"

"Easy, I know you." He grinned.

I sighed and didn't say anything until we reached the park. It was only three blocks away and a familiar path. My mind wandered, as it usually did, to things about my family life, the nostalgic past, and the fact that Ouri and I were arm in arm. He was a great friend even though he and I hadn't stayed in contact a whole lot. I felt undeserving of such a great friend. _He knew me? He actually thought he knew me well enough to know where I was hiding? But we hadn't been in contact in years. What motivated him to keep up our friendship? _

We reached the park and sat down on the swings. I remembered when I was young that I was so excited to swing on these instead of the baby ones that functioned almost like diapers attached to chains to swing back and forth on. I didn't swing back and forth now though; I was still in an emotional mess. Then again, when had I been free of one of those in a day since starting the gym challenge? The swing was a good enough chair. Other children were on the playground, calling and giggling to themselves. It was still afternoon and some people hadn't had their lunch like we had.

"So, what happened?" Ouri asked on his swing.

I sighed and summed up my problems briefly even though I hadn't wanted to talk earlier. I don't know, I simply needed to unload. "Well, I'm sure that my family is hiding something from me and it might have something to do with this weird power that I might or might not have. They won't tell me the truth about our heritage and it took a stranger for me to look up my past."

"O-o-ok… I wasn't excepting that." Ouri laughed lightly to ease the tension. "So what's this thing about a power?"

I shook my head. "I think I dreamed it up though… I don't know… I can't stand this secrecy anymore."

He nodded and left off in thoughtful silence for a little. He finally concluded, "Then I'm afraid that I can't really help you then. Only you and your parents can work this out."

I shrugged. "They probably won't talk to me after what I said at the table. I wanted to ask them in private, but it just came out…" And I was trashing myself in front of Ouri. Usually girls do this either when the feel down, or when they want someone to contradict (or reaffirm) them to make them feel better. I simply was down.

"If you're sixteen and don't know about your family history or a possible power, I think you should have a right to know. I mean, we can travel our region at the age of fifteen, why can't you ask about other and more important things?" Ouri concluded and got off the swing. He crossed his arms and said, "I'd help you more, but I need to run my errands before it gets dark. You know the drill here." He smiled. "You can do it, Utopia."

"Maybe…" I trailed off mournfully. I wanted a little more help than that, but if he needed to run, he needed to run. Yes, I still was relying on others to get through things instead of being strong and doing things myself.

"You can do it." my friend repeated as he turned around and walked off to what I guessed the store. Well, I guess I felt a little more confident after that, but not terribly. I still couldn't make myself face my parents with fearing them.

After sitting on the swing for some minutes, I forced myself to stand and trudge back to Ouri's house to talk to the parents. I had to** act** assertive and not accept no as an answer. I had to think like an optimist. _Ok, I will finally get the answers and I can be less insecure about myself by knowing my past. I will find out what is scaring my parents and make sure that I don't end up scaring them. And I can do it with confidence!_ I was totally kidding myself, but I could try.

I rang the doorbell and the Greene family welcomed me back enthusiastically. I was then shown to my parents, who seemed to put on a happy face for my sake.

My mom was still a little flustered if not agitated and my dad was just as calm as ever. Maybe their contrast was what kept them together. They weren't a similar couple and I couldn't think of a time when they seemed terribly romantic to each other. I could guess that Dad could calm Mom down when things got tough.

"Utopia, sweetie, I'm sorry that we haven't been honest with you." My father stared, instantly smoothing out the waters of a possible tsunami of a conversation.

The Greene family then left us three to talk in the family room, respecting our privacy. I sighed and continued to look at my dad. He seemed more willing to talk and speak kindly. "Yeah, you could say that." I muttered.

"I know your mother doesn't want me to talk about this, but I think that since you are old enough, you should know."

"Like heck I don't!" Mom snapped. "We've tried to protect her all this time and you think that a little talk will cure everything? She's in danger and the less she knows the better!"

Dad took a deep breath in and out and addressed mom, "Utopia is mature enough to hear about the family line of Damos. If she doesn't then she could be in even more danger."

My eyes bugged and all of my coping methods of thinking that last night was a dream were falling apart. _So, Damos really was in the equasion… and I was in danger? Since when and how long?_

Dad said in his soothing voice, "We moved to Unova because we were afraid. This was before the coup that is happening now, but we were still afraid. You see, a person with my blood can connect to the hearts of Pokémon." My father paused to see if I was still listening or if my head had exploded yet.

I blinked slowly and clarified, "So what were you afraid of? And you can really use powers to connect to Pokémon hearts? If that's so, why didn't you ever have a Pokémon on you? And did you chant 'transcend the confines of space and time'?"

I had evidently surprised my parents at these questions because they took a long time to answer me. Even cool and collected dad was astounded that I even mentioned the little chant. I decided to stop deceiving myself and accepted that I had in fact had some sort of weird heart-power. _Luke was right all along… But was it a good thing? Did it cause danger to myself just for being like this? What if I was somehow a curse to society and would be hunted down for my differences? _Now my mind was really spinning from over-reactive imagination.

I sighed to myself. _Maybe this whole gift of connecting to Pokémon hearts was the reason we went to Anville Town and why I never was allowed to have a pet Pokémon. Did my parents even own Pokémon? Did only dad have the heart connecting ability and my mom simply was over reactive about it? What was the extent of my powers –if I could even cope with considering myself 'gifted'_?

"Well, I can see that you've figured out some things on your own already." My dad said after a pause.

"No thanks to you two." I grumbled.

"We were protecting you and now you don't seem to care about your own safety!" Mom interjected, still on the matter of safety from some invisible enemy. It was starting to get on my nerves.

My dad stood up and held out his hand. He gave me a deep smile and said, "I think this way I can explain things a little better."

I stared at him for a continuation of his supposed speech, but he simply stood there and seemed to want me to shake his hand. "Uh… how will that help?" I eyed him carefully.

"Just take my hand." He said disarmingly.

I stood up and hesitantly took his hand. _I mean, what could go wrong?_

I couldn't explain what exactly happened as our hands met, but I could feel that weird heart-reaching resurface. I could feel my dad's heart and his intentions seemed clear. _A simple handshake could somehow tell me all this?_ I could read his heart (if you wanted to call it that) and see that he and mom were worried about powerful legendary Pokémon. The history of people like us always ended up somehow with a legendary Pokémon and possible danger. The heart reading was a gift and Pokémon could almost tell if the person had that gift. We were prized for our ability to reason with Pokémon and it went all the way back to Damos, if not further. Dad didn't want me to be in that sort of danger or manipulation and secrecy seemed to be the best way, and living in Anville town as well.

Mom and he had moved to Unova because they thought Unova had less legendary Pokémon to worry about and that I would be safe, but there were as many legendary Pokémon in Sinnoh as Unova. They had little to no money and simply decided to live with it. And furthermore, they didn't want to tell me of my heritage because I would obviously ask questions as to why and they didn't want me to know of my powers until I was older just in case of misuse. But they were scared to tell me as I grew up and simply couldn't bring themselves to speak. Until now, that is.

And yes, I could use my heart-reaching by saying the chant, or simply by willing it after I got used to the feeling.

How did I know all that just from a handshake? I guess our heart-reaching abilities could reach each other and we could understand each other like this. Our hearts connected? Sappy sounding, I know, but there was no other way to credit it. That would explain why I never really hugged dad and he didn't want to be hugged in the past…

We let go of each other's hands and stared at each other. My dad's face sank a little. "I'm sorry that it distressed you so much…"

"But now I understand your perspective… somehow. You think that since I have heart-reaching powers that legendary Pokémon will target me?" I paused and shook my head. "I still have to accept this whole new concept of this inherited power…" I paused and frowned. "Wait, how **did** I know your perspective?"

"When two people with our gifts touch, our hearts connect." He said, back in wise saying mode it seemed.

"Well, now you're in trouble. Legendary Pokémon will try to test you and see what they can get away with and people who know will try to manipulate you. Don't blame me if your life goes downhill because you were too curious!" Mom raged and seemed nearly ready to stomp away.

I wanted to try to calm her, but I didn't know what to say. I hardly had a dream or goal to aim for in life, how was it going to get worse?

Dad came to my rescue. "Honey, Utopia is strong and mature enough to figure it out. She's not a child anymore, she's a full-grown Pokémon trainer."

Mom had had enough and left the room fuming.

I looked down at the ground and felt honored that dad had faith in me. I wasn't too surprised that mom had left the conversation; she left a conversation when she couldn't stand it anymore. I still had to ask so much more from my dad about my heritage and about the perks that came with it. "I was wondering… If I can connect with the hearts of Pokémon and other people of my descent, then can I learn a little from you how to work this? I mean, I have a Larvesta that doesn't like me and I don't know how or where to start with this whole thing… I can still barely accept that I have this sort of power." I admitted. "And can I connect with the hearts of regular people too?"

"You can't connect with regular people, but I can help you with your Pokémon." My dad smiled.

_Well, that conflict got over quite quickly. I guess there's less misunderstanding with the whole heart connect thing. And now I can sort of understand my dad's view on the issue as well. Sure I still had questions about Sinnoh and why I had to wait until I was ten to move to Anville, but they could wait. My fire bug was going to defend me from Kyurem when it came with her dragon-powered hidden power. Things would be looking up!_

**A/N: Fun Fact, if you visit Lacunosa Town on Black or White in the night, you can find the fisherman and what I chose as Utopia's old house. :)**


	50. Battle Royale

**A/N: Woot! The big 50! Thanks again for sticking with the story. :D**

**Gregor's POV**

For us trainers that were staying in Mistralton for Sunday, Malcolm made sure that we were going to have a small battle royale as a little distraction from the challenge. He planned out a little match-up for all of us to fight each other in just for the sake of battling.

I myself couldn't be happier with it. I could watch other people battle and add up strategies to best all of them. And if I wanted, I could even ask my Gothorita Raven to make notes on the Pokémon's personality that battled as well, but I would only do that for a serious battle analysis. In short, I was going to have a great time watching and fighting with these guys.

Malcolm had counted us all up and was writing on a whiteboard in the computer lab for the matchup schedule. Ouri, Utopia, and Tim were elsewhere, so the matchup would end up either odd or someone would have to step out. But then again, I don't think anyone would want to stand down.

When Malcolm got to writing up the people's names, he left mine unpaired and automatically going on to the next round. I was a little pleased that I could watch everyone battle first, but wondered why Malcolm chose me to go to the next round without competition. _Did he already hear about my battling with Tim?_ Well, knowing Albertus I wouldn't put it past him. Albert seemed almost like a proud father when he saw me battle. I already had a proud father and it felt weird for a stranger to try to take his place. _Honestly, my family life is just fine_.

The sailor-looking Archie noticed the match-up as well and said, "Don't you think Gregor should battle someone before going to the next round like the nest of us?"

My not-so-helpful partner interjected, "Nope, he has enough skills to be placed there!"

I shook my head modestly, "Well, I'm a decent battler, but nothing out of the ordinary."

"You and your modesty!" Albert snorted. "The kid's got talent and he can't even accept it."

"Now I want to battle you and see for myself!" the young Dan proclaimed with a clenched fist.

"Hey," Malcolm tapped the whiteboard and said, "I made this chart for a reason! Don't go jumping the ship yet. And you'll all get to watch his battle, so that ought to be good." He pointed at the first match and said, "Well, I have Pavel versus me first, followed by Dan vs. Archie, then Guy vs. Albert. Then it'll be the next round."

We memorized the scribbled chart (I could imagine most everyone were mapping their way to the top) and all went up to the outdoor battle arena. The outside weather was chilly, but not too bad considering what it could be.

The first match started off quickly. Pavel sent out his Swoobat to start with speed while Malcolm sent out his Braviary. There was no doubt to me that Malcolm liked his Braviary. I could say that I observed it but he insisted on talking about his Pokémon all the time, so he was painfully transparent in Pokémon fights. If I ever battled Malcolm, I could disassemble his tactics easily. Pavel on the other hand was a mystery to me, so I devoted more of my attention to the enthusiastic pilot.

"Four-on-four, ok? I've only got four on me." The red-head double-checked with the pilot and the battle began.

I took in the battle, absorbing little details about Pavel and his fighting style. I could already tell that he could win quite handily if the battle was only with bird Pokémon. He certainly knew how to use his flying Pokémon to their greatest.

Braviary didn't stand a chance in the air against Swoobat in speed, but Malcolm could tell that. Instead, Malcolm instructed his Braviary to use its size and weight as an advantage over the smaller bat. Pavel directed his Pokémon to continue to flaunt and annoy his opponents. _That must be his tactic._ I mentally saved that bit of data.

"Braviary, crush claw the bat!" Malcolm yelled as the bat came in for a close-range attack. The bird obeyed and the Swoobat was instantly overpowered. Malcolm's brute-strength trumped the first of Pavel's annoy tactics, but that would be expected if the brute strength was able to make contact with a taunting foe. Then again, the flaunting Pokémon could then tire out its opponent and strike afterwards if the taunt-er had stamina on its side. These set of tactics to each other could always vary according to trainer and Pokémon.

The next round, Darmanitan vs. Unfezant was completed quickly with Darmanitan's quick movements and hard-hitting attacks. If I wanted to fight Malcolm, then I would have to figure a way around getting smashed by the attacks.

However, momentum fell on Malcolm's side when Conkeldurr was handily defeated by Pavel's Rufflet with a well-aimed aerial ace. The last round, Cottonee vs. Bouffalant, was going to determine a win or a tie. I predicted that either Malcolm would give up for the sake of his fluff-ball Pokémon or would be surprisingly strong. Actually, I couldn't remember seeing Malcolm ever use his Cottonee for anything other than being a pet. But I couldn't be sure; Malcolm had raised all of his Pokémon very well and they were high powered.

The red-head heaved a deep breath and said, "Ok Cottonee… let's try this Bouffalant on for size…" _So he was going for it, though he seems hesitant. What could the hesitation mean?_

Pavel switched his tactics and ordered his buffalo Pokémon to charge forward with a powerful retaliate attack. Malcolm's Cottonee had no time to avoid the force of the hit, but that wasn't a concern. Actually, the Cottonee disappeared into the afro of the buffalo Pokémon.

Bouffalant didn't feel the little cotton Pokémon inside its afro, so it continued to charge forward straight at the red-headed trainer. Malcolm called out and dove to one side to avoid the power of the attack. Bouffalants are known for the ability to de-rail a train with a simple head-butt, any clear-headed human would dodge.

Pavel didn't understand that Cottonee was inside the afro of his own Pokémon and ordered the buffalo to thrash about to find its hiding place. This only caused us spectators to scatter in fear of meeting up with the thick horns and powerful hooves. We regrouped a little ways off, still eager to see if the famous cousin of Eugene Kwester was worth his talk in battle.

Then Cottonee decided to take advantage of its position. The afro of the Bouffalant started to gain layer upon layer of cotton in a cotton guard attack. The bull started to realize where its opponent was and began to head-butt the ground violently.

I smiled to myself. If Malcolm had planned that, then that would be an impressive strategy. The afro on Bouffalant's head absorbed damage and protected its head. Hiding in the afro would be the best thing for such a small and light-weight Pokémon.

"Uh… that works." Malcolm stammered. "As long as cotton guard holds up… leech seed it then."

My expectations for Malcolm's strategies plummeted. I had given him too much credit.

Pavel tried to direct his Pokémon to get rid of the cotton ball in its hair, but there was nothing he could do. Slowly and surely Cottonee leeched out all of Bouffalant's energy until the tired Pokémon collapsed. Malcolm had won that round (which was to be slightly expected, since he did host the whole event).

The red-head returned his cotton Pokémon and shook hands with the slightly disheveled bird master Pavel.

And that was the first round. Next was the young Dan against the sailor Archie. I had no idea about either of them, so I had pay careful attention to both of them. Malcolm and Pavel went off to the Pokémon center for their Pokémon's health while Guy refereed.

"How many Pokémon do you want to fight in the match?" Archie said with his very slight accent.

Dan pumped his fist and proclaimed, "Let's stick with four-on-four rules, first team knocked out loses, and substitutions are allowed." He pointed dramatically and said, "And no Sinnoh Pokémon, ok, man?"

Archie agreed and pulled out a Pokéball. It opened and a circular bug emerged: a Whirlipede.

"No problem!" Dan called out, showing off blazing confidence. "Zebstrika let's go!" the lightning zebra Pokémon emerged with a threatening cry, an intimidating way to start the match. I knew what Dan was planning: he wanted Archie to keep his Pokémon out to battle because there didn't appear to be any type advantage, but Zebstrikas were known for the move flame charge. Archie might not know this, being a foreigner and all, so Dan was using it to his advantage.

Archie proved to either be confident in Whirlipede's success and didn't care about the possibility of a flame charge, or he simply didn't know about flame charge. "Whirlipede, use poison tail." _An offensive fighter?_ I mused.

The bug rolled forward, gaining momentum as it tail glowed, ready to strike. Zebstrika seemed completely confident about itself that it didn't seem to want to dodge. Whirlipede struck with its glowing tail, knocking the thunderbolt Pokémon to the side.

"Zebstrika, stomp that bug to the dust." _So Dan does have a slight strategy? Fool the opponent into worrying about stomp, then strike with a flame charge?_ I continued to analyze carefully.

The zebra Pokémon neighed and brought its front hooves down with a powerful crack. Whirlipede backpedaled in fear of getting hit by the sharp hooves and was thus saved from the attack.

"You can do it, Whirlipede! Venoshock." Archie cheered his Pokémon on. I couldn't see what this guy was thinking as easily. I had already guessed that he was good with handling Pokémon back in Sinnoh so in theory he should be a good opponent. But had he gotten used to the ways of the Unova Pokémon?

The bug summoned up blobs of poison and hurled them at the Zebstrika. The black and white Pokémon snorted haughtily and charged forward without an order, avoiding the poison onslaught. Fire gathered around the zebra and Whirlipede was too slow to avoid the fiery wrath of flame charge. And sadly, Whirlipede didn't have enough defenses to withstand the super-effective move.

Dan pumped his fist in the air. "Good work Zebstrika!" He cheered. "Hey, are we going for rounds or complete knock-out here? Four on four could end up as a tie in round-style." The youngest trainer in the group asked Archie. _Dan is sort of a cocky fighter…_ I mused. It would make sense with his flaming hate and overreactions that he showed when he was first paired with Pavel. It was almost as if Dan was proud of his heritage and almost flaunted it.

Archie agreed and sent out his next Unova Pokémon to continue the fight against Zebstrika: Golett. I had always thought Golett a strange Pokémon and I wondered how in fact Archie had received this Pokémon. They were only recorded to appear in Dragonspiral Tower. Had he visited that place before? The ground-ghost Pokémon crossed its rocky arms and seemed to leer at the zebra, though it could be also interpreted as a haughty attitude.

"Not even type advantage can win this round!" Dan said with flair. "Zebstrika, use pursuit!" Zebstrika seemed certainly ready for any sort of opponent, with attacks of stomp, flame charge, and now pursuit. I could guess that an electric move was the final move in Zebstrika's arsenal.

The zebra Pokémon charged forward and struck the still Golett with dark energy. The automaton Pokémon took the hit easily and didn't falter. "Golett, use magnitude!" Archie called out, his voice wavering in his confidence. In response, his Pokémon turned its head away and continued to stand passively.

I nodded to myself. The Golett had to be either a strong-spirited one or a traded Pokémon that didn't value its trainer.

"You call that a magnitude, man?" Dan scoffed, "Come on then, Zebstrika. Let's give that ghost another pursuit!"

Even for Archie's prowess in the Sinnoh league, a traded Pokémon didn't want to listen to him? Either that was tragic, or maybe Archie was tricking us all. This guy had gone to the Sinnoh league; he had ample knowledge about Pokémon battles at a younger age than trainers here in Unova. I wouldn't fall for it.

Golett took the hit once more, not budging an inch or listening to the pleas (or show) by its trainer. The match sadly ended with the Golett being stubborn enough to allow itself to be knocked out, which I still didn't see how that could be in Archie's favor. He was down two Pokémon and might not recover to win. Then again, Zebstrika seemed quite tired.

"Lampent, flame burst!" Archie called out right as the lamp Pokémon materialized. Suddenly Zebstrika was on the ground, dazed and knocked out. The lamp Pokémon had fired a fire attack so quickly I had missed it with a blink. This Pokémon was not to be underestimated.

Dan took a second to accept this before returning his Pokémon. "That's fine, I can still totally win! Ducklett, you can use scald!"

The blue duck Pokémon emerged with a quack and spat out a steamy stream of water right at the ghost lamp. Lampet showed more agility than Golett and disappeared to avoid the attack. Ghost Pokémon were notoriously hard to fight, and as long as Lampent didn't get hit by a super-effective water attack, it could easily win the rest of the match. I wondered why this guy had two ghost Pokémon on his team and if there was a reason. _Did he like ghost Pokémon?_ Then again, there were more determinates than just types when a trainer chose a team; maybe the two ghost Pokémon were special to him.

Dan refused to be flustered, though he was showing that he didn't like the new tactic. "Ducket, rain dance! That ought to help us find it!" _Hmm, Dan actually had a good idea there._ The sky grew dark and a light and steady downpour began. It would end soon, but not before the Lampent would appear from the rain. Commonly some fire-type Pokémon steam or sizzle slightly when hit by water in an attempt to evaporate water to protect its internal flare.

Dan either heard or saw the sizzle of the invisible ghost, and directed his Ducklett to spray an enhanced scald attack. The scald didn't hit anything, except the ground.

I looked up at the sky and smiled to myself as the raindrops hit my glasses and face. I could just imagine Bob's reaction to this attack. Bob was the type of tinkerer that liked to get messy and didn't care all that much about personal appearance, and furthermore he hated rain. I could see in my mind's eye Bob ducking around under a tree or his black umbrella he carried around everywhere he went. He would complain and ask his Dieno to use sunny day, or cuddle with his Cubchoo and pretend to catch a cold.

I missed Bob and Chad and wished that they were either still with me in the finals, or that I had failed a test to join them. I wanted to be a gym leader, but I still missed my friends. In my ideal world, I would employ both Chad and Bob in my own gym. _But that's not how the real world works…_

I looked back at the battle, which had turned quite drastically in my musings. Lampent was attacking the Ducklett with a fierce nightshade and the water fowl was in a panic. In fact, the Ducklett was so terrified that it fainted from fright. And with the fainting of Ducklett, the small rain storm subsided, leaving the sky to go back to its normal grey.

Now the fighters were even in number of Pokémon. Dan seemed perturbed and sent out his next Pokémon with a scowl. Next up was Garbodor, its stench tagging along. I winced at the smell, but grew accustomed to it quickly. Bob had one of those Pokémon to match with his general messiness and Chad and I had eventually accepted the smell into our group.

Lampent was a very experienced Pokémon and seemed to wage its fight on the mound of living garbage with a passion, scorching it and flying about swiftly to avoid any poison. I half-wondered if Lampent had a sense of smell or not. The Garbodor was too slow and was beaten easily by Lampent, though Lampent had to be tiring by now.

Then I remembered the dangers of having such a Pokémon. How could a person even train a Lampent or Litwick without being in danger of having their life force eaten away? There were many stories about the fatal mistakes of trusting a Lampent and even the Pokédex warned of their misdeeds. I hoped that the Lampent wasn't getting its energy from us onlookers or any other life-force. So in theory, the Lampent could be powered by living things and battle for a much longer time than a normal Pokémon. But if this Pokémon was so strong, why did Archie use it third in his team instead of first and win all the way through?

Dan was getting frustrated by now and called out his last Pokémon for the match, "Sawsbuck, you should be protected from ghost type attacks… You can do it, Sawsbuck!" the young kid cheered. Choosing a grass/normal Pokémon against a fire/ghost Pokémon probably wasn't the best move for typing. But with the grim look Dan held, I could predict that his other Pokémon could be also weak against a fire/ghost Pokémon.

Dan yelled loudly, "Camouflage yourself!" That was clever and useful to have that move. The deer with antlers full of autumn leaves used the attack, kicking up the dirt of the training field until the dirt hung in its fur. Camouflage is an attack that temporarily changes the user's type according to its surroundings. Now Sawsbuck was no longer normal/grass, it was ground type. That could be helpful against a fire Pokémon, but the normal immunity was gone.

"Lampent, Inferno." Archie commanded, staying cool throughout his fight. It was as if he already planned out how to win and put on a show at the same time. He was experienced; I'd give him that credit.

"Dodge and use mega-horn!" Dan yelled excitedly.

The Sawsbuck charged forward, narrowly avoiding the burst of flame, and struck the lamp with its antler. The autumn leaves on its horns smoldered from touching the hot Pokémon and a small flame began to spread around on the buck's head.

Sawsbuck panicked and tried to put out the fire by scratching it out in the ground. Dan didn't know what to instruct his Pokémon, and Lampent charged in for a close-range inferno attack The Sawsbuck began to run in circles, trying desperately to put out the flames on its head. Dan had no choice than to return his burning Pokémon. Archie had a very strange way of fighting, making himself look weak at the beginning and then smashing his opponents down afterwards. Dan simply took things at face value and fell into Archie's trap.

Archie would move on to the next round to fight against Malcolm. Both he and Dan shook hands begrudgingly and went to heal their Pokémon. Next up was Guy versus Albert. Pavel took up the refereeing for Guy.

Just as the battle was going to start, I heard my Xtransceiver ring. I pulled out the device and saw that Bob was calling. I made a quick decision to answer the call instead of watching the battle. That way whoever won would be more of a mystery to me and the fight would be fairer.

I walked away from the crowd and accepted the call. "Hello." I greeted the small face of my greasy friend.

Bob's grin grew wide. "Hey Gregs, glad to see that you are still ok. I thought the challenge would get so hard that you would look worn out an' stuff." He greeted me with an enthusiastic smile. "So, guess what? I called to tell you about someone!"

I could hear a battle starting behind me, but I fought to ignore it. "A special someone?" I asked playfully. "Like how? Is it a girl?"

Bob nodded and his cheeks grew a little redder. "Well, Chad and some other person didn't make it through the first round of the contest in Mistralton, so we said goodbye to Chad then. And then it turned out that the girl that didn't make it headed up to Opelucid City along with Chad. Then I arrived not that long ago and it turned out that she's pretty nice. She even likes the musicals and I gave her a few props she liked…"

"You gave a girl presents? Man, I'm missing a lot over there!" I fake-complained good-naturedly. A group secret of ours was that all three of us guys actually were fans of the Pokémon musical. Chad was very quiet about it since he wanted to keep up his macho and football playing personality, but Bob liked and spoke about the musical the most out of us. Hearing him give away a prop or two was a surprise to me. _Was this girl that special to Bob?_ I smiled widely.

"Well, you're getting closer to your job, so don't quit on us or your dream!" Bob seemed a little quick to ignore the fact that he gave a girl props even though he had mentioned it himself. _Maybe it was a sort of puppy-love?_

"I know. It's very interesting here, though kind of lonely without you two."

"Is Utopia a friend?" my friend asked, leaning closer to the camera.

"She is terrified of dragons and is allergic to my Purrloin. Other than that, she's a great friend." I replied.

Bob looked a little disappointed. "Oh, then she wouldn't like to see our awesome dragon trio, would she?"

"Well, her teammate is trying to help her out to get over her phobia, but she isn't warming up to dragons anytime soon." I shrugged.

"Wait, what's this about teammates? Who's your teammate?" Bob asked.

"After you guys left we were paired up. I'm partners with Albertus Lahti, the harlequin. Actually, he's fighting in a mini-tournament with all of us Top Ten right now."

"And who's with Utopia? That red-headed famous person? He's friendly."

"Utopia is partnered up with Timothy Feldman, the dark-haired guy."

Bob wrinkled his nose slightly. "**That** person?"

"No need to be rude, Bob. There are all kinds of people in the world."

My friend shrugged. "Ok, fine."

"He's actually a really good tactician like myself. I would like to battle him."

"Whoa, really?" Bob understood that my wanting to battle someone meant that the person was skilled and had caught my attention.

"Yeah. Anything else happening in Opelucid City other than a pretty girl?" I was ready to end the call and get back to watching the battles. And I didn't like talking about other people all that much to my friends when they could be around listening.

Bob colored again and said, "Well, Chad and I are having fun exploring both halves of the town. It's a really cool place; one side is all ancient and traditional while the other side has all the latest technology. There are musicians on the street corners and the dragon-tamer gym. I bet they would like to see our dragons."

"Interesting." I agreed. "Well I'm glad you two are having fun. I'll call you if anything happens in the challenge."

"Ok, aim high and become a gym leader, Gregor. We believe in you! Allons-y!" Bob waved as the call ended.

I smiled to myself. I liked talking with my friends; it seemed much like I was back home. You never consider that a trainer would become homesick, but sometimes I felt like I simply needed to be home. Traveling with my school friends kind of brought home along with me so I didn't feel that keen sting of missing out on my families lives.

I turned around to continue watching the fight, but I was stopped by the dark-haired partner of Utopia himself. "Oh, hello, Tim. I didn't see you there."_ I wonder why he's here and if he's angry about what I said about him._

Tim looked down and mumbled quickly, "Look-I-have-something-to-say-and-Luke-won't-listen." He waited a little bit before looking at me through the corner of his eye.

I wanted to ask him what his deal was, but could tell that he had something important to say and needed someone to listen to. He wasn't one to be very open and talk with others very much, so I considered myself to be kind of lucky to be asked to listen. I nodded and said seriously, "What is it?"

Tim sighed lightly as if relieved. "Well, there's this soothsayer…"

However, Tim was interrupted by Malcolm of all people joining us. The red-head jovially addressed both of us, "Hey, you two up for the next match? Hey, Tim! Even though we haven't gotten along very well, would you want to join up in the little battle tournament I set up? I'd really like to see you and Gregor duke it out!" he tried to put on a friendly face but I could tell that he didn't get along with Tim at all, which was odd to me since Malcolm seemed to get along with everyone.

Tim gave Malcolm a death-glare in reply.

I shrugged. "Tim was going to talk to me about something."

"But you can talk after you battle, you've got all day!" Malcolm protested.

"I won't say that I don't want to battle Tim, it's just that we were having a conversation." I replied as peacefully as I could.

Malcolm frowned as if he just remembered that I had sided with Tim and his dragon Pokémon when Utopia was scared out of her wits.

Tim groaned and looked at me. "I would like to battle you too… but…"

"Come on, I want to see the fight! It'd be awesome. When else would you two battle anyways?" The red-head pleaded again, as if begging famous people to better his show.

I was about to decline the invitation for the sake of Tim and his important information, but Tim surprisingly gave in. He gave a dark look to Malcolm and said flatly, "Fine, if you'll stop pestering me I'll fight in your little match."

"Great, you two will be up next!" Malcolm sent a nearly genuine smile back to us and went back to the current fight.

"Why'd you agree?" I asked softly, as not to sounds judgmental.

"To shut him up… and I'd like to fight you… I can wait to talk." He said firmly, as if he was afraid to admit to some hidden fault.

"That's fine then. Will you fight with your baby dragon or not?"

Tim shook his head. "Nessa isn't ready for a fight."

At least he knew the limitations of his own Pokémon and cared for them. I nodded to him and before walking back to the crowd; I couldn't help but try to shake his confidence slightly. I couldn't help being a little more aggressive in a Pokémon battle. "I wouldn't have guessed that you're a natural brunette. Are you going to re-dye soon?" I didn't check to see if that had any effect on him or not, but kept my cool persona going.


	51. The Tim and Gregor Fight Part 1

**Gregor's POV**

I took my place back in the crowd to catch up on the fight I had missed. Albert was commanding his Dwebble against Guy's Pansear. The fight was going well and both Pokémon were fighting their hardest. I couldn't tell who would be winning the match overall at first glance.

The fight continued on for another good two minutes, which was impressive for unevolved Pokemon. The Pokémon both were exhausted from the match and finally Guy's Pansear fainted a little before Dwebble gave up. Guy and Albert returned their faithful Pokémon and sent out their next round of Pokémon, possibly their last round.

Whoever won this challenge I would battle if I beat Tim. Come to think of it, after two tacticians have seen each other's styles they tend to adapt new styles to rival each other's styles. My fighting style wouldn't be the same as other previous battles and neither would Tim's. This match would be very interesting indeed.

Tim finally stomped up to me and put on a cool face. "You're just trying to catch me off-guard, aren't you? Well it won't work on me."

I smiled kindly and explained, "I simply noticed the roots of your hair are a light brown compared to the rest of your black hair. It's a simple observation." He was a sharp one, but I wouldn't dare let on that I thought his observations were keen. I turned back to the fight. Albertus was fighting with his Maractus against Guy's Emolga. This would certainly be a fascinating match-up.

The Emolga raced forward and shocked the maraca-cactus Pokémon, but Maractus retaliated and hit the small rodent away with its prickly arm. Emolga eeped and fell to the ground. Guy encouraged it to continue fighting and it used the attack fake tears. Maractus fell for the attack despite Albert's warnings.

Maractus apologized to the crying and sniveling Emolga, only to get a sharp sting of electricity from the little flying squirrel Pokémon.

"And for your previous question… I think I'll let my hair just grow out…" Tim said in a low voice that I could barely hear.

I turned to him, slightly puzzled. _Why was he saying this unless it meant something important to him? Tim wasn't a social man or liked to talk about things that had little significance. Was there a meaning behind his hair color? What did it signify?_ "Why do you want to let it grow out now? Have you had it black for a while?"

"A few years," He replied guardedly. At least he was talking, that was a step forward from his snubbing me.

"Then is it a good thing? For the change I mean." I asked, forgetting about the battle again. _I wonder what a 'few years' means…_

He gave a slow and dark shrug. "Why would you care?"

I gave him another kind smile to encourage him. "Our close friends are far away and I don't know about you, but I feel a little out of place." Maybe I shouldn't have said that, but I ended up saying it anyway. Perhaps Tim had very few friends and he felt alone with Utopia off in Lacunosa for the day. And if Luke didn't understand him about this business about a soothsayer, then he was feeling very alone. Maybe I could help in some small way?

Tim stayed quiet. I shrugged slightly and looked at the battle again. Maractus was attacking Emolga with its pin missiles and Emolga was trying with all of its agility to dodge each and every attack.

The match wasn't going to go on as long as the last round though. Guy danced around a bit before saying almost in beat to a song, "Acrobatics, my Emolga." Emolga, since it wasn't holding anything and could move faster, danced in the air and collided with Maractus, causing massive damage.

Albert cried out desperately for his Maractus to withstand the blow, but his Pokémon was too weak to obey. The match went to Guy Fellow; Albertus was left to accept his loss to a much younger opponent. The two shook hands, as the other contestants had done, and went to heal their Pokémon.

Malcolm gave a small announcement that Tim had showed up and would join in the tournament and the small crowd of guys clapped appreciatively. I didn't feel any apprehension about this being a public match or that I might lose. I was going to enjoy this match very much no matter the outcome. And besides, losing for me was a rare thing (not to brag or anything). Tim would be my elder by three years, but Albert was Guy's elder by three years as well and that got him nowhere in the match. Age and badge number didn't matter at all.

Tim and I came out to the battle field and faced each other in civility. I held out my hand and said, "Good luck."

"Yeah, you too I guess." He replied with a determined look in his eyes.

We headed to our sides of the dirt practice field and stared at each other, waiting to see who would draw out their Pokémon first. I wanted to know which Pokémon he would send out first so I could counter. He was only using four and I could choose four of my six. I had more decision making than he did.

Tim pulled out a great ball and I automatically knew that it was his Sigilyth. "Beartic!" I called out and my Pokémon emerged, roaring and ready for a fight.

Tim grinned and switched Pokéballs last second. "Cryogonal, Ice-beam." His snowflake Pokémon emerged from his hidden dusk ball and instantly launched an ice beam at Beartic. _Tricky man._

Beartic was confident enough to take the hit and brushed it off like it was a mildly irritating bug bite. _What was Tim planning with Cryogonal against Beartic? Or did he just want to fake me out for the sake of faking me out?_ This was truly a tactician's battle.

"Beartic, let's show them a real ice move. Icicle crash!" Cryogonal had weak physical defenses and would suffer from a direct hit whether it was super effective or not. _Let's see what you do in retaliation._

"Reflect!" Was the counter order.

_So he wanted Beartic up close?_ "Beartic, stop!" I yelled quickly. "Don't get too close to it." Cryogonal was able to bind opponents with its ice crystals, a move I had seen at Celestial tower. I wasn't going to play into his hands.

My polar bear Pokémon halted his attack and backed up a little warily. Beartic was a surprisingly timid Pokémon for being so large and scary-looking.

Tim seemed slightly impressed at my reaction, but not too much. "Ok then, let's play." He said with a glint in his eye. "Cryogonal, ice beam again."

Beartic dodged the attack this time and waited to hear my orders. I couldn't see any way I could use this battle to my advantage. I could switch out with Throh, but that would play into the close-range bind Cryogonal used. I needed a Pokémon with strong special powers. "Substitutions allowed, right?" I confirmed.

Tim nodded seriously. It almost seemed like he had planned on it, which wasn't good on my side. I didn't want to play into his hands.

I stuck with decision anyways. "Switch out Beartic, go Raven." In a matter of moments my Gothorita was standing in front of me, ready to beat the Cryogonal to bits for me. She's a little defensive of me.

Tim raised his eyebrows in a taunting smirk. "Well that ruins a bit of your bad ass team, doesn't it? You're depending on a girly Pokémon like that?"

My stomach churned a little at the familiar insult.

"Rita goth-goth gothor!" Raven was not going to let that insult past her and summoned up a powerful psyshock attack. The surge of psychic energy slammed hard into Cryogonal, almost creating a crack in its fragile ice body.

Tim Feldman was a little surprised at the attack, but quickly recovered. "Cryogonal, reflect and get closer to the Gothorita." He directed.

"Goth-goth." Raven remarked and held up her hand. The bows on her hair and belly glowed a light blue and Cryogonal was enveloped in the glow as well. "Rita goth." Raven commanded sadistically, glaring at Tim. Raven was usually a happy-go-lucky Pokémon that liked pretty things despite her gothic look. However, in a battle that starts out with an insult, she could utilize her powers very viciously.

Cryogonal, still under the influence of the blue energy, turned around to its trainer and spat out an ice beam. Tim yelped and dove out of the way just in time. He got to his feet and yelled at me, "What kind of attack is that?"

I hadn't spoken since he had insulted Raven, and she took it as a bad sign. She ordered Cryogonal again, "Ori orita goth."

The snowflake Pokémon obeyed and wrapped its trainer in its bind attack. Tim was once again confused and a little hurt by his own Pokémon, but he returned the snowflake quickly to prevent any more attacks from his own Pokémon.

He gave me and Raven a loathing glare and called out his friend Luke. "Careful, Luke," Tim warned his ghost friend. "I think that Gothorita won't hold back on its hypnotizing."

So he did figure out the hypnotizing powers of Raven, at least he was showing his aptitude. I tried to calm Raven down. "Hey, it's ok Raven, I'm fine. You're doing a great job though." Raven gave me a confirming look before loosening up a little.

"You rely on a Gothorita to fight for your esteem?" Tim remarked. Again he was proving to be an equal opponent to myself. And as such, he was trying to disturb my focus, just like how I had tried to trip him up with the remark on his hair.

"Gothorita is a great Pokémon. I think you see that after what happened to your Cryogonal." I tried to brush off his observation. Now wasn't the time to think about the past. "Psyshock, Raven." I directed. Even though it wouldn't do very much to a ghost type like Luke, it would still show them how powerful she was.

Raven summoned up her three balls of blue energy and hurled them at Luke. Being a ghost, Luke turned invisible and avoided the attack altogether.

"You can find where he is, use your psychic powers." I called out. There was surprisingly very little psychic powers couldn't do; though Luke seemed to be able to use telepathy while Raven didn't. Raven closed her eyes and her blue psychic energy pulsed from her bows. I couldn't tell if she had found Luke yet, but she seemed focused. "Psyshock again, Raven."

"Gothi goth." Raven said in her droning, terrifying voice. She was strangely meaning business and was going to put her all into this round. I hadn't seen her so involved in a battle like this before. _What had happened to the flower-loving Gothorita I thought she was? Was that familiar insult somehow more painful today?_ Her blue energy gathered and shot out in three orbs again. This time they made contact with Luke's invisible form.

The small ghost materialized, though not terribly hurt. At Tim's suggestion, he gathered up shadows to launch at Raven in an orb. I quickly made a note of Tim's courtesy to his friend/ghost compared to his orders with Cryogonal, though I already knew that Tim and Luke were friends and not just battling partners.

But now was not the time to admire relationships. "Watch out for that attack, Raven." I cautioned.

She nodded. "Goth rita ri." She did a splendid backflip and dodged the exploding ball of shadows. A slight dust cloud kicked up from the attack and suddenly Raven was hit backwards by a trick shadow ball attack performed by the Yamask.

"Raven, you alright?" I asked my wounded Pokémon. However Luke had managed such a quick attack, I had to admit that it was impressive. _I'll remember to keep an eye out for it again. _

My Gothorita was wounded but not terribly. She rose to her feet and tried to hypnotize Luke like she had Cryogonal. The dust cloud cleared and Luke wasn't visible again. Ghost Pokémon certainly could be a pain to fight. If only Raven had foresight… but instead she had an even better move. "Faint attack." And faint attack never misses.

Raven dashed forward with her dark emotional energy and slammed into what looked like solid air, Luke materialized from the hit and seemed dazed from the super effective move. "Don't let up, psyshock him quick!" I directed. This battle was going to prove Raven could take on her own weakness and win, even though Luke was a slight friend and telepathy-speaking ghost._ Don't mess with me in a battle though, especially after calling Raven girly._

Raven didn't let up in her attack and pummeled the little ghost with psychic energy. Luke quickly sent off another shadow ball point-blank, knocking my Pokémon back. And sadly that was all she could take. Raven struggled to fight back, but fell flat from sheer exhaustion.

I returned my starter Pokémon with a light sigh. She had done her best and that was all that mattered. I could send Beartic out again, but I had a feeling that Luke could handle him even after a faint attack. I needed to use type advantage; that is, if Tim didn't switch. "Purrloin, pursuit."

My cat sprang out with a hiss and aimed at Luke, but ended up missing. Purrlion was my weakest member and I had been trying to level him up when I came in the challenge. He still needed work on accuracy and beefing up his moves. This would be a great place for him to get experience.

"Why do you have such weak Pokémon in this match? Are you taking the battle easy on me?" Tim glared at me. He seemed to have a prejudice against girly-looking Pokémon.

"I wouldn't go easy on you; that isn't my style." I said confidently. "You can do it, Purrloin. Try another Pursuit." I encouraged. I wasn't going to go easy on Tim at all.

This time Purrloin managed to slap a little at Luke. He jumped back and continued to act as if he was a very strong and feared opponent for the ghost. _Just a little more…_ I thought to myself.

"Luke, use Ominous Wind. Gregor might be holding back but we won't." Tim sneered at me. Luke was certainly a strong Yamask and pulled off the Ominous Wind attack perfectly. It hit Purrloin and sent the young cat skidding back. My Pokémon was shaken by the attack mentally, but his defenses held up brilliantly. This shocked Tim. "What? That cat should have been blown away!"

_Eviolite, my friend._ I thought. _Good old eviolite._ That item raised Purrloin's defenses by 50%, making him a good battler by being able to get experience by endurance. But I wasn't about to let on about Purrloin's held item. "You can do it, Purrloin, use pursuit again." Sadly my Pokémon only had pursuit as a dark attack and my attack was already predictable. Maybe Purrloin could formulate a new approach on his own.

Purrloin rushed forward in another attack and Luke predictably avoided.

Purrloin hissed angrily and tensed up, kneading the ground with his claws. Now he was annoyed. He sprang up in the air before Luke could launch a counter attack. In mid-leap Purrloin was surrounded by a white light that signaled him evolving.

I had a quick decision to make. I wanted Purrloin to grow and get stronger, but in this match the eviolite was helping defense. Once Purrloin evolved the item would be useless and the new Liepard would be easily knocked out. But I did want Purrloin to evolve… I decided to let things go as they went, even if that meant I would let Purrloin down. He wanted to grow up and I wasn't going to stop him for one measly battle.

Purrloin grew larger and leaner and crashed into the surprised Yamask. Luke still wasn't wounded terribly even after Purrloin (now Liepard) tried so hard to. Luke sent off a powerful shadow ball (his most powerful and favorite move I guessed) and sent the weakened cat sprawling back towards me.

"Lie!" Liepard hissed angrily despite his wounds.

"It's ok, you did well." I soothed the leopard Pokémon.

Timothy frowned at me. "Wait, are you giving up this round?"

"Liepard doesn't stand a chance against Luke now that his eviolite won't help him." I said with a small smile. "Luke fights very well."

Tim nodded, as if he expected that eviolite was the source of Liepard's defense in the first place. Or maybe he was just playing it that way. "Well thanks, we'll take that as a compliment." He said with a hint of pride.

I patted Liepard on the head and returned him to his Pokéball. Once I got the chance, I would be sure to give Liepard some more battle experience. But now I could only use Beartic and another one of my Pokémon. I knew who my last Pokémon would be, no doubt. "Now I'll introduce you to my last Pokémon for the match, Fraxure." I was glad that Utopia wasn't around, or I'd feel bad for calling out her phobia.

Fraxure, my trusted dragon companion, jumped out of his Pokéball in style. He raised his axe-like teeth in cutting motions and gave a mighty roar. I knew that he was just trying to gage his opponent's power and not exactly a show-off. Fraxure waited for Luke to make a move.

"Luke, switch out."

_Just as I expected._ "Are you sure you want Cryogonal out in this match?" I said with a hint of concern. "I don't want to be held responsible for what happens to it."

Tim frowned. He seemed to be assessing my statement and deciding whether I was using reverse psychology or not. His will to use type advantage won out and he sent out his snowflake Pokémon despite my warning. "You just don't want to lose your match to an ice-type," The dark-haired trainer replied smoothly. Cryogonal, who seemed completely cured from Raven's hypnotizing effects, hovered in the air, expressionless as always.

I didn't want to give Tim a comeback even though I knew for a fact that I would knock out Cryogonal in one hit. I didn't need to be haughty. "You can show them, Fraxure." I said evenly. "Get in close for our dragon claim."

Tim quickly analyzed my order and quickly directed for an ice-beam attack. Tim was brighter than usual opponents, but this round was still mine. Cryogonal floated to the side and shot a blue stream of ice at Fraxure.

Fraxure, just as we practiced, slashed through the attack with his claws, splitting the beam in half. He was fighting even better than while in practice. Now for our code-word, 'our dragon claim'. Fraxure ran up and brought his claws forward in a feinted dragon claw attack, then quickly opened up his mouth and spat out a super-charged incinerate attack.

Cryogonal fell to the ground, meting slightly before returning itself for fear of melting completely. Fraxure had shown off his fire-type move, but at least I had finally knocked out one of Tim's Pokémon. I was still behind in Pokémon count, but Beartic and Fraxure could pull through to fight Luke, Archeops, and Sigilyth.

Tim's eyes widened at the quick reversal, but he covered quickly. "Impressive I guess." He called out Archeops and ordered, "Dragon Breath."

Fraxure knew full well that a dragon breath wouldn't be that strong, but it would still be super effective. "Counter with your tail!" I encouraged. I couldn't explain it, but Fraxure and I seemed to be the most connected when we battled. Sure Raven was handy and powerful, but Fraxure seemed to be able to read my mind and strategy when we fought. I guess it was because we had trained so well in the past that we had prepared for everything, even code words to surprise opponents with.

My dragon flipped in the air nimbly despite his buff appearance. The dragon breath attack didn't hit and Fraxure swung his still spinning tail, now glowing like steel, slammed into the ancient bird's head. Archeops squawked in surprise and flapped away from Fraxure.

"I see. Archeops, use acrobatics on Fraxure."

"You can take it!" I called encouragingly.

Archeops ran forward, took to the air, and then threw itself at Fraxure with claws bared. Fraxure glared at the oncoming Pokémon, as if challenging it to a game of chicken. As Archeops was about to strike Fraxure, my Pokémon tilted his head artfully and slashed at the oncoming bird with his tusks.

Archeops' own momentum aided in the effectiveness of the attack and Acrobatics was pretty much nullified. The ancient bird flopped to the ground and Fraxure snorted aggressively.

Once again, Tim was surprised at my tactics and was struggling to keep up. "Archeops, are you ok?" He called out with the caring I had seen on the Celestial Tower when Archeops had evolved.

"You're doing great, Tim. As you can see, I've saved my best for last." I said in a modest tone. "Raven might have been my first Pokémon, but Fraxure is certainly my strongest."

"Maybe Nessa could learn a bit of something from your Fraxure." Tim admitted a little ruefully. He glared and mustered up his competitive spirit. "Well, Archeops still has some fight in him. That slash attack didn't do much at all to him!"

"By all means, show me your moves."

"Then use ancient power!" directed Tim.

Fraxure saw the rocks coming and jumped up in the air spinning while using iron tail on projectiles. It was a beautiful move on his part. He lost momentum as the attack was done and stumbled to the ground. His flashing dodging and parrying was tiring him out, which wasn't going to be in my favor. Archeops probably had more endurance, being a rock-type Pokémon.

Tim was getting frustrated at not being able to cause any damage on Fraxure, and Archeops mirrored his vexation.

_How long will this battle take?_ I wondered to myself. I had Beartic and Fraxure left and Tim had three of his Pokémon that could still fight_. If this ended up being a long fight, then would I end up losing?_ I didn't know how much Tim wanted to compete in this competition. Perhaps he only wanted to fight me. _What if he gave up so that he didn't have to keep on going in the tournament? But what was I to do if that was the case? _It didn't matter to my fighting style. "Fraxure, you can get close enough." I projected confidence in my voice, though I was still unsure of how the battle would continue.

My dragon roared loudly and charged forward, teeth humming in the air, ready to strike a blow with his iron tail. Archeops was strong enough still to dodge the close range attack and launched another dragon breath attack. Fraxure couldn't counter in time and was knocked back from the super effective move.

I frowned slightly. "You ok, Fraxure?" I asked.

"Xure!" my Pokémon reassured me, sounding like he was saying 'sure'. He jumped to his feet and growled at his opponent.

I smiled back. "Try to get past its defenses." Just then I noticed a strange man in the crowd. Instead of the group of teen trainers in the contest, there stood a man with blonde hair and blue piercing eyes, dressed in slight flight gear attire. The man's focused look made me feel uncomfortable and in awe at the same time. Whoever this person was, I could tell that he was a calculating battler as well. But where did he come from and why was he watching a little playful tournament?

I snapped my attention back to the battle right as Fraxure managed to land a critical hit with his iron tail to Archeops' face. There was no chance of the bird getting up after that blow, though I hoped that no permanent damage had been done. That would be highly unfortunate. "Good hit, Fraxure." I calmly congratulated my Pokémon for his cleverness in a tone that wouldn't get Tim riled up.

My efforts were in vain, Tim could find a way to get offended at anything. He glared daggers at me and called out Sigilyth to the field. "Fine, but your Pokémon has got to get tired at some point. Sigi, use air cutter!"

_A long-range Pokémon. I would be in major trouble if Fraxure didn't know his incinerate attack. But should I switch out with Beartic or not? How to win this match?_

**A/N: ARGH! This took way longer than needed. I didn't want to divide up the fight into two chapters, but I'll have to. I've been playing PMD EoS way too much. :3**


	52. Tim vs Gregor Conclusion

**AN: Long story short, my creativity was on an extended break. Thankfully it is back and I've spent some time re-reading what I've written to get back in the personalities of the characters. I haven't given up on the story, but I'll be trying to connect B&W2 cannon with my own while spending lots of time playing through the story. And I ended up being a little late on the one-year anniversary of writing the story, but still. Also, it so happened to be close to when B&W2 came to America… **

**Ok, been bugging you enough, on with the story!**

**Tim's POV**

Siggy and Luke would have to pull off an incredible victory over a Beartic and Fraxure if I wanted to have any hope of winning this match. But I didn't know what I could do against a Beartic with Luke and Siggy other than to try to overpower it. Seeing that Gregor was my opponent, there was no way that mere force would work.

I had to try. "Siggy, air cutter!"

"You can switch out, Fraxure. Take on the Sigilyth, Beartic." Gregor quickly switched his Pokémon and his polar bear Pokémon took the air cutter attack. It didn't seem to be very effective.

I could easily tell where Gregor was going in his strategy. Did I trust that Siggy could take on his weakness of ice, or should I try to see how Luke would weather the bear's onslaught? _No, he's expecting me to switch Pokémon. I wouldn't want to be predictable. _"Psybeam and be as elusive as you can!"

The psychic attack hit Beartic and I crossed my fingers to see if it would become confused. Luck didn't comply with my plea this time.

"Beartic, Blizzard."

_Damn it!_ He wasn't going to hold back on a super effective move. My only hope was in a 30% chance of missing. "Avoid that attack, Siggy!"

Siggy spiraled upwards in haste just as a freezing gust of snow swept across the battle field. He was saved just in time: the attack only managed to chill the spectators and raise my adrenaline. The Sigilyth twirled and opened his wings wide to unleash a quick miracle eye attack to ensure that he wouldn't miss. He then dived forward, aiming a psybeam directly at Beartic's face.

Gregor didn't show any emotion of his attack being avoided or facing a diving Sigilyth, which made me nervous once again. The polar bear Pokémon took the hit to the face and roared with a little more annoyance. Still the bear didn't show any signs of being confused.

I saw the attack before Gregor called it and I couldn't do anything to stop it. I cursed myself for not seeing his obvious plan.

"Icicle crash!"

Beartic slashed the air and three long icicles formed where its claws had been in the air. Without a second to waste, Beartic sent the icicles flying right into Siggy close-range.

Siggy took the hit hard and sank to the ground, though not completely knocked out. I could urge him on to battle until his strength gave out, but I knew he couldn't take much more beating. It would have to be all up to Luke then. "Return, Siggy… And it's up to you now, Luke…" I called out Luke from his luxury ball as Siggy retreated in his great ball.

Gregor nodded, as if he had planned it all along. Or maybe he was simply trying to make me nervous enough to make a mistake.

"All right, Luke," I said with confidence, "both his Pokémon are winded. Just nail them with shadow balls and outlast them. And you could use a bit of borrowing attack from the bear as well."

"_Sounds good to me,"_ Luke thought back.

"This is a great battle!"

It was as if I had woken up from a dream after hearing that encouragement. I had forgotten all about the world outside of the battle… and that I was just in a little tournament that Malcolm for fun. I had been so focused that hearing the crowd say something shocked me. _Who said that?_ I suddenly felt disappointed that Utopia wasn't in the crowd, cheering me on. Luke couldn't even cheer me on while battling. So who had said that?

I shook my head and figured that it didn't matter.

Luke floated forward, showing off his agility compared to the lumbering bear. Beartic roared and tried to launch an icicle crash attack. Luke easily avoided the hit and slammed a shadow ball into its face. Beartic stumbled a bit, the onslaught of Siggy and Luke was finally wearing it down. One more well-aimed attack and Gregor and I would be down to one Pokémon each.

Luke make quick work of Beartic and a sudden cheer went up from the crowd as Gregor called out his strongest, albeit a little tired from fighting Archeops and Cryogonal. The onlookers actually cared about this match, as if this silly little tournament meant something in Skyla's Gym challenge.

"Frax xure-xure fra!" Fraxure challenged.

"Yam ya." Luke responded, as if cordially accepting the terms of a spar.

"You can do it, Luke!" I called out encouragingly. He turned and nodded at me and in that little gesture I swore I could see his young human face nodding to me. I mentally shook the memory from my head.

"Fraxure, give them something to consider." Gregor said as confidently as he could, though I could have sworn that his own confidence in winning the match was fading.

Fraxure leapt forward, raising his head as to swipe with his tusks. He had incinerate, slash, and iron tail as attacks and he couldn't use slash against Luke, so either he was feinting to go in for a close-range incarnate, iron tail, or his fourth un-shown move. Hopefully it wasn't a dark or ghost attack. I couldn't ignore that possibility, since I didn't think that a normal Fraxure in the wild would have such specialized attacks.

"Luke, avoid it. We don't know what it is." I grunted. I didn't like fighting this Fraxure-Gregor duo, Gregor didn't seem to use regular commands with Fraxure and it was harder to counter. In response, my Yamask friend disappeared.

Fraxure landed on the ground and raised its voice to a screech, raising its head and arms to the sky. A dangerous volley of meteors suddenly dropped on the playing field. I ran my hand through my hair in stress. This dragon was loaded with Draco Meteor in its arsenal. And if its ability was rivalry, then fighting Luke was only helping it.

Luke reappeared unharmed by the tirade of space debris, but just as shaken as I was. We had to end this battle quickly if we wanted to win. Luke had Ominous Wind, Shadow Ball, Power Swap, and Psychic. _A power split and psychic should hold us off for a little._ "Power Swap and psychic, Luke. Stay as elusive as you can."

"_Already on it."_ Luke thought back. He activated his power split attack, borrowing from Fraxure's high attack.

"Try what you will." The nerd said in a forced confident way. "Fraxure, let's finish this as quickly as we can."

_Was that a command for Draco Meteor?_ "Watch out!"

Luke knew what he was doing, already giving the dragon a wide berth. Fraxure roared, swung his head around, and jumped into the air to perform a close-range attack, more than likely iron tail rather than a useless slash attack or close-range incinerate. Luke disappeared and Fraxure landed back on the ground, eyeing the air suspiciously. Luke had an obvious advantage. He could win this round and the match!

"Fraxure, Incinerate." Gregor called out in a strangely typical manner. But Luke was still invisible, how was that supposed to do anything? The dragon turned and spat a ball of fire in a somewhat random direction.

Reappearing on impact, Luke became a little signed from the expertly aimed fire attack. But how was that possible? It wasn't possible to see invisible ghosts! I stared at Gregor in a second of awe, before checking up on my friend. "Are you ok, Luke?"

"_I don't know how they saw me, but they did…"_ Luke admitted telepathically, but he wasn't showing any signs of being beaten. Let Gregor show off his keen observations, we could win this. _"But I'll stop him with a psychic attack for sure!"_

"Good spirit, bud." I said quietly.

The crowd was cheering again, this time for Gregor's impossible spotting.

"You haven't disappointed me, Tim. Thank you for this battle so far." Gregor said in a sportsman-like manner. He gave a small forward bow like a gentleman, a disarming move on the outside.

But I had seen this before. Gregor had complemented Utopia and I a few days ago at the Pokéringer with our skills, catching off guard but almost concluding that he had won. I wasn't going to read this as polite, rather a taunt.

"This fight isn't over yet." I narrowed my eyes and Luke flew forward, readying his psychic attack.

Fraxure growled and called upon the meteorites once again.

Every spectator seemed to hold their breath and lean forward.

A large explosion created by the feuding Pokémon erupted and I braced myself against the wind and force of the power. I had to see what had happened! Did Luke's Psychic attack work? Was he knocked out?

The dust painstakingly cleared to reveal Luke and Fraxure, inches away from each other, Luke holding a shadow ball right to the dragon's face. Both were tired, but Luke clearly had the upper hand. We had won!

I paused a moment and considered what in fact I did win; a chance to go on in Malcolm's clumsily constructed tournament to keep on battling until there was a winner. But why would I want to do that? I was perfectly happy to continue on my own, exploring caves and the like. I could head back to Mistralton Cave to see the upper floors without worrying about Utopia freaking out.

If winning meant that I had to around more people and give away my battling style, I'd rather pass. "Good job Luke, but I think they deserve to keep on going in the bracket." I gave Gregor a 'I won that round but you can keep your silly contest' sort of look.

Luke understood what I was saying and sent the shadow ball into the ground. "Yam ya Yamask." He stated and bowed a little to the dragon.

"Xure?"

"Mask mask yam ya-ya Yamask mask." He concluded and returned himself to his luxury ball.

Malcolm, of course, had to jump in and clarify what was going on. "Wait, what's going on? I totally thought that that talking Yamsk won! Are you forfeiting to Gregor?"

I gave him a cool, aloof reply, "I won the match, but I don't really care about your tournament set up. It's the best for both of us." I nodded at the nerd and turned around to make a favorable exit. After all, my team needed some attention and the sooner they got better, the sooner I could get back in my element.

The crowd let out a cheer that kind of warmed my heart. Battling Pokémon hadn't ever felt this fun before…

"Hey, don't take off just yet. I'll heal up my Pokémon with you." Gregor interjected and returned his worn dragon to its container. He pushed up his glasses and held out his hand. "That was a great battle. And even though I see that you don't want to keep on fighting other opponents, and I shall respect that, but I wanted to add that you are the first person to best me in a match in a long time."

I slowly accepted his hand and gave him a sturdy shake. I suppose that he battled well enough for me to kind of marvel at his tactics. Some were obvious, but in some ways he and Fraxure were far closer than Luke and I were. I still had no idea how the nerd could find an invisible ghost.

Gregor gave me a polite smile and we walked back to the Pokémon center. While waiting for the nurse to get back with our Pokéballs, I pulled out Nessa's Pokéball and said indirectly to Gregor, "So… you know a bit about Fraxures…?"

He seemed somehow delighted to be asked. He nodded and replied excitedly, "Yes, and a bit about other dragons like Druddigon and Dieno. My friends Chad and Bob have those Pokémon… actually, if you want to hear about it; Bob, Chad and I got our dragon Pokémon all at the same time. The three of us have been raising our Pokémon together as we get our badges and I get closer to becoming a gym leader."

"Oh really?" I asked, feigning interest, even though I was kind of curious about this guy. There was something about him that screamed insecurity, maybe from how he battled with Gothorita. He seemed so polite and helpful on the outside, and a brilliant strategist.

"Yes. But I don't need to bore you about that. Could I meet your Axew more officially?" He said, peering at the premier ball in my hand.

I didn't see any harm in it, especially since I named her and introduced her to Utopia. "Ok." I let out the burst of red light that materialized into the small Axew.

"Yew-yew Axew!" She chirped happily and then became shy.

Gregor got off of his chair and crouched down to be at Nessa's eye level. "Hey there, can I see your tusks?" he said gently and reached out his hand to the dragon's head.

"Xew?" Nessa gave me a quick glance before waddling up to Gregor's hand. He patted her head and tapped her tusks gently, as if pinching a child's cheek. "Yew-yew." She responded by waving her paws about to avert attention to her tusks.

"I see. You're still very, very young." Gregor remarked. "My Fraxure was about double your age when I got him. Maybe when he's healed, I could introduce him to you." He paused and said, "I'm afraid I don't remember… but did you choose a name for her?"

"Nessa."

"Ah, nice name." He turned back to Nessa and addressed her by her name. "Hey there, Nessa. I think that your trainer wants to make you sweet and caring, though strong in battle for a certain partner he has."

I felt a little conscious nudge to bring up the topic I had left off on when I was first roped into the tournament. Luke didn't believe that the lines I was drawing between the legendary Pokémon and Jamie the soothsayer's messages and Utopia were founded. But there had to be something in common with the strange Jamie and her predictions and Tornadus appearing out of nowhere to snatch up Utopia for no reason. And with the looming threat of Kyurem… it had to complete a puzzle of some sort… But could I talk with Gregor about these things? _No, I can't…_ Maybe Utopia, whenever she gets back, would listen to me… or not when I mention Kyurem. Seriously, she's got a terrible phobia that needs to be cured.

"Are you ok? You seem a little worried." Gregor said in a polite, unobtrusive tone.

"No, I'm fine."

"Do you miss Utopia?"

I shook my head even though my obvious answer was yes. "Not a whole bunch. Just thinking about what I need to do."

"Oh right, did you want to tell me something about Luke and you not agreeing on something? I almost forgot about that." He sat up and waited for my answer patiently.

"Forget about it. I'm sure it will work out." I dismissed his help.

Gregor looked down at the floor a little before remarking, "Well, I don't mean to bother you. I'm going to watching the rest of the tournament. You are free to come with."

I didn't know how to respond other than 'ok'. Luckily the nurse came by and returned our healed Pokémon to us. I could get back to the caves if I so chose. But should I watch the fights going on? I was going to have to beat some of them eventually, right? No, I had had enough people time and since Utopia was back at her home for the day, I could go where ever I wanted.

Gregor received his Pokémon and stood back up. Without waiting for me he went back outside.

I sighed and looked down at little Nessa. "Well?"

"Yew-yew ax." She called out and waddled after Gregor.

_I guess I could watch just one or two matches… I can leave whenever I want._ I reasoned. _Ok, fine. I'll see if I can learn any dragon tips from Gregor… and ask how he was able to find Luke while invisible. And I can leave any time that I want for a cave_.

**A/N: Whew, that took a bit.**

**Also, I'm playing B&W2 and in W2 I'm up to Drayden, the seventh gym leader. I saw Skyla's gym and saw the changes from human-launching cannons to wind tunnel. And all of the gym trainers except for one are different from before. Again, I'll be trying to incorporate these changes in my own cannon.**

**Thanks so much for your patience and reviews.**


	53. A Vivid Dream

**Utopia's POV**

I didn't get very far in learning about my new-found (and scorned by my mom) powers of connecting to Pokémon's hearts. First off, I was easily distracted by things, and two, it was getting dark. Ouri and I had to decide when we should head back to Mistralton. We could travel in the evening or in the early morning. Either way, light had to be able to guide us. Sure enough, Lacunosa Town always gives me the impression that only inside our houses and walls will humankind ever be safe.

I wanted to know about the things that hadn't been explained yet, as in; what was Sinnoh like, did you two ever own Pokémon, if mom is so worried about what will happen to me about encountering legendary Pokémon, did dad ever have a dangerous run-in with one in Sinnoh, and if so, what happened? And thanks to my questions, I wasn't learning anything about how to connect to hearts. Darn curiosity, but they did keep it secret, so I wanted to know.

"Utopia, try to focus dear." My dad was getting frustrated with my lack of attention.

"But I want to know about Sinnoh. Hey Dad, did you ever have to deal with some legendary Pokémon?" I yammered.

"Utopia…"

"And was I born in Sinnoh or Unova? Can you speak a little Sinnohan for me? Do you think people from Sinnoh and Hoenn can understand each other because I met this one guy from Hoenn that looked like me and he talked kind of strangely?"

He sighed heavily and rubbed his wizened temples.

"Um, can I interrupt you two?" Ouri asked politely.

I supposed that we still needed to figure out what time we needed to head out. The sun was setting and the good people of Lacunosa were locking up their houses dutifully. "Sure." I replied.

"I was wondering about getting back to Mistralton in the morning instead of heading out tonight. I need to double check something before the sun goes down and I don't want to fly out of here when it's dark." Even though, being trainers, we had gotten a little more used to being outside at night, it was considered rude to be outside in Lacunosa at night.

"In the morning? But what about the next round of challenges? Do they start that early? Would we get back on time?" I asked. I wouldn't want to get back to the gym late and have Tim go on a rage because of it.

"If we leave around sunrise, which would be around 7:45, we could get back alright." Ouri assured me.

"Then we'd just spend the night here?"

"Sure, we've got plenty of room here. Your parents are sleeping in a spare room upstairs and you can have the spare down stairs."

That was the second time that he had said that he had to run an errand or check up on something now that I thought about it. What was he doing? "Ok, that works. I'm just curious, what do you need to check up on?"

"Some errands." He answered vaguely.

"Anything more specific?" I pried.

Ouri seemed to get a little nervous. "Maintaining the defenses of Lacunosa…"

"Like keeping up the wall?"

"Yeah, like that."

I wasn't satisfied with his answer. He seemed to be intentionally hiding his true goal as if it would be frowned on.

He continued, "But that's what I want to do. Will you be ok with sleeping here? I'll wake you up in the morning if you forget to set an alarm or something. But after I check up on my errand, it'll be too dark to head back. Swanna can't see very well at night."

"Ok, I'll go with that." I agreed.

"You aren't thinking of going out right now, Ouri. Supper is almost ready." Mrs. Greene joined us in the living room. Only now did I smell the scent of some kind of grilled meat. I had forgotten about supper thanks to distractions yet again. _Landorus, I haven't even tried to reach Sundazzle's heart yet. That should be my first priority!_

"But I can't wait until the sun sets. It's 6 already and sun sets in about an hour." Ouri countered. "I promise that I'll be back soon." He picked up his small backpack and made his exit before his mom could retaliate.

"Kids these days…" She remarked. "Give them a Pokémon and a year of training makes them forget about manners…"

The rest of the day seemed to rush by: Ouri got back in time to eat a lovely arrangement of steak and potatoes. He kept quiet about what he was planning with his errands. I could have sworn his family was in on the secret too. I found out through dinner conversation that my family had actually been invited over to Lacunosa as a family get-together and were not there randomly. Maybe Ouri had planned to take me back to Lacunosa before even inviting me… My mom was also on more speaking terms with me, but wanted to forbid me using or showing off my newly found heart-connecting skills, which kind of encouraged me to try it out on Sundazzle even more.

After the meal was done, the sun had already set.

"Ok, Utopia, try to not sleep in like this morning. We need to be out the door when the sun rises, ok?" Ouri clarified.

"Ok, I'll set my alarm. By why are you telling me now?" Wasn't it a little early to be going to sleep? It was only around 8 o'clock.

"I'm going to sleep. I need the rest." The green-haired guitarist nodded to me as if to send me off. "Well, if you are planning to stay up a little later, I'd suggest making sense of whatever you discovered and the like. See you in the morning." He raised his hand and turned to the stairs for his room.

The rest of the Greene family seemed to want to go to bed early as well, and soon Mr., Mrs., and Jaya Greene had retired to their respective rooms. I looked across the living room and saw that my parents were even heading in the direction of the stairs. I was reminded then that before I was a trainer, this wouldn't have been so strange. We always slept and awoke according to the sun. That sleep pattern was, I suppose, a psychological reassurance to safety while sleeping against Kyurem…

"Um… goodnight Mom and Dad…" I whispered, afraid to actually speak in their range of hearing. Maybe they still were mad with me and my running out on lunch and not listening to Dad when he was trying to help me.

I really didn't have anything else better to do than to go to the basement to talk to my Pokémon, then go to sleep. Suddenly Tim came into my mind and I looked at my Xtranceiver guiltily. I should have at least said goodbye before I left with Ouri. I could've called him earlier… I clenched my teeth and lowered my wrist again. I didn't need to call him; he'd probably be off in a cave and not get good enough reception to receive the call anyway. And Tim would probably end up acting like a snob and rubbing my leaving for the day in my face, make me feel guilty, and then punish me by showing his Axew. I could just guess. No, he'd be fine without me calling him!

With that resolute thought, I went to my underground room. The basement of Ouri's home (like most other basements in Lacunosa) was well furnished and stocked with some supplies, in the emergency of being frozen inside our own home. In fact, if I looked hard enough I could find some articles of self-defense. You'd be surprised that trainers can actually depend on weapons instead of all the time on their Pokémon. Granted it is exceedingly rare, but not an impossibility.

An air mattress and pillows and blankets were waiting for me on the rugs covering the floor. All in all, it was nice considering that the Greene's house usually held four, but now was holding seven. I set down my backpack and figured now was the best time to have a family conference. And by that I mean my Pokémon. Sad isn't it?

My four Pokémon emerged and started to investigate the odd shag rugs and odd smell of a new place. Len the Palpitoad stayed where he was, waiting my orders or affection. I set down a plate of Pokémon food and Pebbles, Sundazzle, Len, and the creeper-fish Ole all helped themselves. Maybe I should remember to feed them more often…

"Stuuuuuun…" Ole crooned as he ate his fill.

Ok, I could ask Ole now what his deal with being so creepy was. I grimaced and clasped my hands together, then sat down just in case I was to lose my balance. "Transcend… the confines… of time and space…?" I muttered. The strange, other-worldly feeling came to me again. Even as I tried to recall what Dad had coached briefly on, I was still feeling panicked with these new things. I tried to focus on Ole's energy and connect with his heart. "Um… do you understand me, Ole?"

He responded, but not in words: it was more of strings of emotions that I could translate into a sentence. _"Not any less than normal. Heh heh heh…"_

"So then… Just curious, why are you so creepy?" I asked cautiously.

Ole paused a little, as if connecting that I could now understand him. His response became translated as _"That's a bit of a question I guess… I don't know why… maybe because I think scary things are funny and others don't."_

"Well that explains your dark hidden power…" I mumbled.

"_My what?"_

"Never mind…" I looked over at the other three Pokémon to fall under their sharp gaze. They were staring at me as if I had somehow turned into a Pokémon myself. With hands still clasped, I asked Len, "So… how are you, Buddy?"

"_Mommy! You can understand us?!" _Len translated affectionately back.

I blushed a bit at being called 'mommy'. "Yeah, I guess I had this ability for a while… But I didn't know about it until now."

"_Well I did,"_ huffed Sundazzle in a strangely posh way. _"And it's about time you learned to use it. Seriously, I was waiting for you to use it since I hatched."_

"Wait, what? How did you know…?" Talking with my Pokémon was getting a little weirder than I had imagined.

"_Well obviously you had those kinds of powers. You were strong in human relations but mysteriously lacking in Pokémon skills. Most kids have good if not mediocre skills at communicating with their Pokémon partners, so your obvious lack should have suggested that some potential was hidden."_

"_Whoa, no way!"_ Len gaped naïvely.

"_I never got that impression. She obviously had no guts to take on Pokémon like me."_ Sniffed Pebbles. _"But life goes on and the Pokéball is uncompromising…"_

Ole gave a deep smirk and whispered, _"I think the gallows are funny, the way bodies jump around when dying…"_

"_Whoa, you need a psychic-atrist… thing… You have issues!"_ Len exclaimed.

"_Try being weak against his type!"_ Pebbles squawked.

_This is so weird… I can talk and hear my Pokémon talking to each other as if they were old classmates or something…_ I looked at Sundazzle a little more intently. "So you knew that I had these heart-connecting powers all the time?"

"_Of course. Legendary Pokémon and pseudo-legendary Pokémon can sense it better than normal ones can."_ Sundazzle replied coyly. I was just now getting the feel that she wasn't just a trouble maker, but perhaps a spoiled princess. And I hadn't really spoiled her, it was in her personality. The fire-bug waited a bit and added. _"I told you to show up that emo all those days ago when I fought his Yamask. I told you to use your skills but you just were too oblivious. I let myself faint because I was disappointed in your blocked potential. And now look where you are; associating with that smelly archeologist instead of a cousin of a world- famous trainer."_

"Wait… what now?"

"_I was even found by that famous trainer and given to you. And one choice after another you've been selling yourself short. It makes me sick. If you didn't have commitments right now, I'd demand that you win some badges and respect." _Sundazzle stuck her face in the air regally.

"So… you haven't been taking my orders because you think I'm selling myself short and associating with lower class people?" I confirmed. It was strange reasoning, but it seemed to make sense. Sundazzle's hostility towards Tim could be that he was a lower class person compared to Malcolm. And she lost against Luke the first time I ever saw Luke because she simply wanted to punish me for not knowing about myself? Again, it made sense, but she came across as harsh. I paused and asked my Larvesta, "So… now that I'm practicing and finding out about this, will you cooperate with me?"

"_If by cooperating you mean taking my suggestions while I'm in a battle, then yes."_

"_You're kinda a witch."_ I huffed in irritation.

"_And Ole's a ghoul."_ Pebbles cawed.

Len bounced up and down and shouted happily, _"Oooh! Can I be the swamp monster? We are talking about Halloween, right?"_

Sundazzle narrowed her eyes. _"If my legs could touch my face, I would rub my temples and moan 'why?'."_

After a little more banter with my Pokémon, which turned out to be pretty funny seeing how my Pokémon's personalities played off the others, I decided to call it a night. I made all of my Pokémon promise to not burn or destroy anything while sleeping outside of their balls, even Sundazzle agreed to my authority and rules. I settled down on my air mattress, pulled Len close, and closed my eyes.

I drifted off into the oblivion of sleep quickly thanks to Len's sound waves. Gets me asleep every time! I then heard a voice calling out to me and I looked around for the source. I saw Luke in the form of his younger, human-self standing and grinning widely at me for some reason. The curly haired boy closed his eyes mirthfully and gave out a childish laugh. "Hey, Utopia, what do you want to play?" He waved his arms happily.

_Play?_ I looked around and saw that I was now in a room with light blue walls and two old blue couches. On the ground was an assortment of toys, ranging from plastic shapes in primary colors to stuffed animals and electronics for kids. "Umm… I don't know." I mused while scanning the pile.

Then out of the pile arose a humanoid shape, which quickly turned into the young Tim I recognized from the pictures. He had chestnut hair instead of black as I knew him to have, and only now did I notice that his eyes matched well with his hair. He gave me a strange and determined look, almost adding his enthusiasm to what game I chose.

"I know!" Luke called out and jumped up on the couch. "Let's play Captured! Save me, Utopia!"

Tim ran up to Luke and took a defensive pose. "If you couldn't tell, the object of the game is to save to hostage. Luke wants to be the hostage this time." He held out his hand and gave me a beckoning motion, "Can you get past me?"

I didn't consider the oddity of playing with young Tim and Luke, or the fact that I didn't really know the rules of such a game. Again, childhood was lacking in this expertise. But I went ahead and tried to push my way past Tim. He fought back and Luke cheered me on to be strong and to save him.

Somehow I passed Tim and jumped onto the couch and lifted up Luke in a bear hug. "I saved you!" I cried out joyfully in a moment of happiness. Luke laughed back, and seemed to become insubstantial, as if reverting to his Yamask form. However, the feeling passed and Luke declared; "Now I'll save Tim from you!"

"Ok!" I agreed and somehow took Tim to a corner of the blue room and held out my arms, as if fencing him in. Luke laughed and called out to Tim and that he would save him. I pushed back the kid in sort of a play-wrestle to defend my hostage.

What happened next was something that I wouldn't have planned for in a dream. Suddenly I felt Tim pulling back my leg, sending me falling forward. I fell on the soft carpet; missing all of the toys I had seen covering the floor previously. Even stranger, I felt someone close to me, and breathing on my ear. _Wait, what?_ Tim seemed to be leaning close to me and whispering in my ear in a highly uncomfortable way. "Now time for a new game…" He said in a strange tone.

I felt an unnerving shiver run down my spine. I turned to see what he was doing, but he had moved a little and took on a new appearance. Now he wore a camouflaged shirt and held up two impressive looking water guns. He leaned against a hill that we had been transported to and he nodded his head to the hill. "It's war time."

I felt a little relieved, though still a little confused what that was about, but I quickly forgot about it when I heard Luke say, "I've got the grenades, general!" I looked to my right and saw Luke in similar dress and in charge of a pile of assorted sizes and colors of water balloons.

I looked down at myself and saw that I too had a camo shirt on and two water guns of my own. I crawled up the hill a little and peered through the grass to see who we were fighting. There was a forest down below, and weaving through the trees were young children, perhaps Luke's age. One might have even looked like Malcolm, though I couldn't be sure. Tim gave out a war cry and launched his attack from his standpoint. Several kids were soaked and they fired back, but only succeeded in hitting the hill.

I gained the courage and shot my water gun at our opponents, laughing with excitement. Why hadn't I participated in these kinds of games before? They were so fun! Luke sent a volley of water balloons on our enemies and the projectiles exploded with such fierceness and amount of water that I didn't see how it was possible.

After a bit of our victory over our strange opponents, Tim, Luke, and I paused to celebrate. The chestnut-haired version of Tim gave me an uncharacteristic smile and held out his hand, as if to give me a high-five. I didn't see any reason to deny his gesture, so I gave his hand a little tap. He snatched my hand and held it for a second, while giving me a very strange look.

The next thing I knew, my hand was somehow turning grey and rotten and Tim recoiled at the sight. I jumped at the appearance my hand had taken as well; bringing back the thoughts of Tim's killing touch.

No, he might believe that he had such a curse, but I didn't_._ I had to make this somehow better. I got a great idea and jumped up. "Hey, new game! How about sort of Zombie tag? I'll be the zombie and I have to tag the both of you to turn you into zombies too!"

Luke giggled and jumped over the hill. "Great idea! Run for your life, Timmy! There's a zombie Utopia!"

Tim recovered from his shock and took to the spirit of the game as well. As he raced over the hill, I put on my best impression of a zombie I could muster: I held out my hands and gave the scariest moans I could imagine. Luke squealed in delight as I raced through the forest after the two boys. I wondered about my hand and looked at it again, but the corrosion was gone and my hand was normal.

I caught up to Luke and was about to tag him and name him a zombie in the name of zombie-dom (or something to that extent) when Tim ran in from the side and defended Luke, as if being a dramatic hero that would risk his life for his friend, even though this was just a friendly game of zombie tag.

I reached out to tag Tim, but my hand couldn't seem to get closer to him. His appearance changed to the Tim I had been introduced to, sitting at the base of the huge tree, a strange and knowing smile on his face. I tried to tag him again, but now he was behind me, placing a firm grip on my right shoulder.

I tried to turn and see what was up with him. What was up with this weird dream anyway? I opened my eyes and saw that now I was surrounded by darkness. I muttered in confusion, "What? Tim, where…? What game…?" Was I awake now?

"I didn't know you talked in your sleep, Utopia." A non-Tim voice critiqued.

_Oh Landorus, did I just mention that I had been dreaming about Tim in the presence of… was it Ouri? Did I really just say that?_ "Ouri?" I squinted to see better in the dark.

"Yeah, I told you that we'd leave early in the morning to get back to Mistralton in time, so I came to wake you up, but you didn't hear your alarm and were tossing and muttering something." His familiar voice stated through the darkness. Strangely, his hand hadn't left my shoulder.

I sat up and nodded. "I was just having this crazy dream… and Tim and Luke were there and we were acting like children, having fun and playing games… it was so vivid…" Ouri's hand was no longer on my shoulder now that I was more awake.

Ouri stifled a grunt. "Why would you be dreaming of Tim?"

The darkness thankfully hid my blushing face. I lifted my shoulders. "I dunno… I have been cooperating with him for the challenge so far…" I looked at a blank space in the dark room and went over in my mind how the dream went. Luke was human, and we played Capture, War, and Zombie Tag, each one of us instigating a game. Some of those parts of the dream… it just confused me. Why did my dream feel so real? And there were a few moments that Tim seemed to like me a little too much, like whispering into my ear. Why did I dream that part up? What caused that to happen in my mind?

I reasoned with myself that I have a weird imagination and I wanted to think nothing more of it.

_Should I ask Tim and Luke if they had the same dream?_ Could ghosts have a sort of connection to people's dreams? What if Tim and Luke had the same dream as I did?

"Hello? Are you ready to go back to Mistralton?" Ouri asked with a hint of urgency. He was right of course; we didn't want to be late.

"Landorus. I'm sorry, Ouri. I'll be right up."

**A/N: Fun fact, the dream that Utopia has was written way before the rest of the chapter. In fact, I got the idea while re-reading my story.**


	54. Calm Down and Jump

**Utopia's POV**

The ride over from Lacunosa was a mix of me being tired and me being shocked into alertness by the cold wind and the ride on a Pokémon. I didn't really want to be awake and go back to whatever Skyla was planning for her gym challenge, I just wanted to sleep and think. I mean, I just had a memorable dream with Tim and Luke somehow… and it seemed so real, like they were really in my dream. And thanks to that, I didn't feel really refreshed and ready for the day.

"You seem quiet today, Utopia." Ouri shouted over the rushing wind. "Is everything ok?"

"Just tired." I shouted back.

I mean, really. That dream… why couldn't I get it out of my head? And I still was unsure of my heart-reaching powers, if I had dreamed them up. I decided to double check that I was in fact in reality. I clasped my hands together and muttered under my breath the "transcend the bonds of time and space" thing. The weird sense came and I could now connect to Swanna's heart and thoughts if I wanted to, but I just wanted to confirm to myself that I wasn't dreaming.

I spent the rest of the flight just thinking and wondering about everything that had happened to me in the last week and what could possibly be in store for me this week. That girl Jamie was saying stuff about Eugene and the legendary Dragon Pokémon and Kyurem… Did I really believe that Jamie had the power to see into the future?

Swanna's pace slowed and we began to circle in descent. Ouri sent me a smile. "See, we got here just in time. I see the group of trainers outside the Center already."

I snapped back to reality. Tim would be around here. "Cool." I said while scanning the ground.

Young Mr. Greene shook his head and directed his Pokémon to land beside the Pokémon Center's doors. The swan Pokémon landed as gracefully as it looked. I thanked Ouri and jumped off the bird. Riding for such a while had made me a bit sore, and I was strangely motivated to find Tim.

Ouri suddenly put his hand on my shoulder and held me from running away too quickly. I turned to see his face. He looked more serious than usual and said, "Utopia. I know that you've got a lot on your mind. You're becoming a nervous wreck. But whatever it is, you don't have to face it alone. You've got friends. And if you are worried about Kyurem, I can promise you that it won't be disturbed. Just try to relax and stop being so distracted and worried." He gave a friendly little smile and asked quietly, "Alright?"

I was caught off guard. I suppose that all of my worrying wasn't doing me any favors, but for a friend to tell me to chill out… maybe I was reading too hard into this whole Jamie-Eugene-Kyurem thing. Maybe what I needed to do was to let my friends help and for me to focus more on the Gym challenge. I gave him a smile. "Ok… I will. Thanks Ouri."

"Take some time to just not think, ok? I don't want to watch my friend stress herself out." He patted my shoulder and returned his Pokémon. With his kind smile, he headed inside the center to find his partner.

I nodded and took a moment to accept his suggestion mentally. _I promise to give myself some down time later today. After all of the Skyla's challenge stuff. I could just lie down on my bed and relax later today. Yeah, that sounds good. _With my mind made up, I headed inside to find Tim. Strangely, I found him quicker than I thought. There he was, sitting at a table in the center with a small group of people around him and Gregor, the two of them engaged in a serious chess match. Trainers from the gym challenge and residents alike were staring at the two geniuses duking it out in the nerdiest way possible.

I ventured a smile and joined the crowd. From the looks of things, the two were evenly matched, with both of their kings, rooks, and a handful of pawns. Tim was lucky enough to still have his queen piece, but Gregor seemed to be moving his pawn to be queened. The two seemed so focused in their match of strategy that I could guess if a new cave was announced to be discovered, Tim would completely tune it out.

I caught sight of Malcolm in the crowd and I made my way carefully to him. While I was moving, the crowd made a few appreciative sounds and I heard slight clacking noises of the chess pieces. I glanced at the chess board again just in time to see Gregor reluctantly tipping his king piece over, signifying his loss. Gregor and Tim then stood up and shook hands, both of their expressions delighted and respectful.

What had happened in the day that I was off in Lacunosa that led Tim to become such close friends with Gregor? Then I remembered, last I saw Tim was off by Mistralton Cave, where I flew off instead of wanting to spend more time with Tim. I hadn't even said goodbye to Tim in person yesterday.

Just as I was feeling down on myself, Tim and Gregor saw me in the crowd. Gregor gave me a waved and said, "Hey, Utopia! Welcome back. How was your trip?"

The chess match was over and the crowd dispersed. Malcolm stayed nearby, waiting for me to greet my other friends before butting in. Gregor came closer to me and gave me a huge grin. "Wow, I wish you were here yesterday, Utopia. There was so much excitement over in Mistralton!"

I nodded and gave my attention to Tim, who was distractedly picking up the chess board and pieces. He was playing cautiously, possibly unsure of how to greet me after I had left him alone for a day and not on the greatest terms. I didn't want to stay angry at Tim. In fact, I almost wanted to hug him. I had missed him, and the dream I had was still in the back of my mind. "Hey Tim. Looks like you had a good game. I didn't know you played chess."

I couldn't tell if he took my greeting as a good or bad sign. "Well, I'd suggest that any Pokémon trainer play chess. It's a great strategy game that's reminiscent of Pokémon battles."

"Consequently, that was the first game out of our three that Tim was able to outmaneuver me." Gregor added.

"So you two are now friends?" I confirmed.

Gregor gave a laugh as if to say 'silly Utopia', "Of course. We both are great thinkers, and after our match we were comparing notes all of yesterday."

"Wow, I can say that I wasn't expecting this kind of welcome surprise. I thought for sure that Tim would hole himself up in a cave." I laughed.

Tim picked up the chess container and said in his cryptic tone, "Then you underestimated me…" He then walked off to put the set on the game shelf in the center game area.

I was a little concerned and fed up with Tim's dodges. I walked after him and crossed my arms defiantly. "Hey, partner. How about an actual greeting from you? Could I at least get a 'hi, Utopia' from you?"

He set the board on the shelf, and slowly turned to face me. He seemed cautious still and was fighting with words.

"Ok, I'll start. Nice to see you again, Tim. Have you been well?"

Timothy nodded. "Yeah… And… how are you?"

"I've had a little bit of a run in with identity and… I hate to admit it, but you were on the right track with your idea of 'Utopia powers'. I'll tell you about it later. Also, I've been told that I need to relax a little more, because my overthinking can't be good for my health."

Tim ventured a small smile. "So, about Nessa and Mistralton Cave…?"

I was confused for a second, but then I answered, "Tim, it's fine. I don't hate you for the other day. We're still friends, and one bad day doesn't stop that."

The look on his face, the transformation from guarded to familiar and boyish enthusiasm, melted my heart a little. He gave me a huge grin and hugged me gently. Actually hugging! This guy hated touching, and here he was hugging me? The hug was only for a second. Then he said with conviction in his voice, "Utopia, you don't know what this means to me… thanks for being such a good friend…"

I made myself laugh to distract myself from wanting to get a little teary. "No problem, Timmy."

He didn't even seem to hear that I had called him "Timmy". He nodded towards where Gregor still was standing. "Well, you should hear from us how our day went and then we can hear yours."

"And what about Skyla?"

"We can socialize until she gives us a task."

I was a little confused who this person was anymore. Tim socializing? Was this the same person from before? Tim beckoned me over back to where Gregor was waiting. I would guess that they exchanged a silent expression conversation, because Gregor nodded happily.

My black-haired partner whipped around and started talking about yesterday in his strange and boyish manner, which I thought he was only capable of expressing in caves. "Yesterday was a great day. Malcolm, of course being the social center of this place, organized up a little tournament for all of us trainers to fight in. I ended up joining to give Gregor a match, and boy was it ever! Our Pokémon fought so hard and did so well. I won of course, but let Gregor go on in the tournament. After that I figured that I could watch a few other matches, and Gregor and I ended up predicting and taking down notes on the battles. Being a spectator became a competition! And after the tournament that Gregor easily won, we had our Pokémon get more introduced. I've got amazing training tips for Nessa now. So after that we pretty much spent the day talking about our Pokémon and strategy and Pokémon abilities. And we had to try out chess against each other. I have to say, out of all our competitions, we are very evenly matched." Tim rambled.

I blinked a little and asked, "So, out of all the trainers in the match, you beat them all?"

Gregor, as always, was modest. "Well, I didn't fight each and every trainer, though offers have been coming more frequently. But yes, I managed to win the tournament. I overpowered Guy's team, though his dance style was a little interesting to work with. Malcolm snuck by Archie's strong Pokémon, but his raw power didn't get past Fraxure and my teamwork."

"You should see them battle, Utopia. Even if you are afraid of dragon Pokémon, you should see their cooperation!" Tim interjected.

I smiled nervously. "Uh… sure…"

Tim nodded, unfazed from my lack of enthusiasm. "At least you should meet some of Gregor's Pokémon. Liepard and Beartic might cause a reaction though… And his Gothorita Raven…" He gave Gregor a friendly nudge and said, "I suppose I underestimated that Pokémon of yours."

The nerd blushed a little. "Yeah, quite."

I could hardly believe how well they were getting along and how familiar Tim was with Gregor. Just then, I remembered that I hadn't seen Luke. "Hey, Tim, where is Luke?"

Tim paused for a second and slapped his forehead. "I left him in the Pokéball since our match. I can't believe that I forgot!"

"Speaking of Luke, I could have sworn that he and you were in my dream last night…" I admitted, regretting the mentioning of it the second I said it. Great, I revealed that I dreamed about him!

Tim surprisingly took the news with a hint of defensiveness and guilt, which made my suspicions rise. Gregor's eyebrows shot up. "Really? That is interesting sounding."

"Yeah…" I gave the two a stare to try to figure out if they were hiding something.

"I bet a psychic Pokémon was involved in your dreams. I've heard rumors of Beheeyem rewriting memories and Gothitelle creating an illusion world. Maybe even a rare Drowsee or Hypno got to munching on your dreams." Tim went into thoughtful mode. "If you wanted, we could find someone with a Musharna and see what the dream was about and how it may have come up."

I couldn't place my finger on it, but Tim seemed a little guilty and too informed.

I wasn't allowed further investigation, as my Xtransceiver buzzed from a message. I was back in the Mistralton Gym challenge!

The message read: *Attention all participants! Welcome back from your weekend. I am sorry, but I am in a gym leader meeting right now. Cliff and the gym trainers will tell you what to do.* Pretty much right after I read the message, another message from Cliff popped up. This new one read: *Hello Participants, ready for a leap of faith? Meet at the foot of Twist Mountian.*

"Leap of faith?" I asked out loud. "What could that mean?"

Tim and Gregor seemed to have picked up on the message already. Tim gave me a small smirk and said, "Hope you don't mind a faith jump with your Vullaby."

"Faith jump?" I frowned, and then repeated in a squeak, "Faith… jump?" If that's what Tim interpreted it as… but Pebbles… she was too small if I had to jump and she would catch me. That couldn't be the challenge, right? That was far too dangerous!

Gregor patted my shoulder. "It'll be fine. Let's go to Twist Mountain then, you two."

All the way I began fretting anew, but thankfully my mind was at the task at hand instead of everything that made me worry. A leap of faith… was this challenge actually becoming a real challenge? I mean, so far we had done minor things with a Pidove and little tasks around Mistralton. This second week might actually be hard. Now Skyla's invite to step out made more sense.

Could Pebbles really catch me if I had to fall? Lately I had flown on other Pokémon's backs for transportation. If Archeops or Swanna had to catch me, I'd be much less worried.

I hardly noticed through my daze that others had joined the group and vaguely remembered seeing some of the guys pat Gregor and Tim on the back like buds. Soon enough all ten of us were standing at the foot of Twist Mountain, the same place where Tim and I had entered for soup in the caves of Twist. Cliff and the other gym trainers were already standing on the ledge above us.

Tim elbowed me to make sure I was paying attention to what was going on. I gulped and looked up.

"Welcome to week two of your challenge." Cliff announced loud enough for all of us to hear. "As you may have gathered, this test will be a little more demanding and dangerous than your other tests. Please direct your attention to Chase." Cliff pointed to the appropriate gym trainer as Chase called out his Unfezant.

The young-looking trainer called out to his bird, "We can do this!" With that, he leaned forward and jumped off the face of the mountain, launching into the air. My heart started racing, as if I was watching a person commit suicide. However, Unfezant dove and caught Chase on its back quickly and easily, flapping gracefully back to the ground.

Chase jumped to the ground and gave us a hearty wink. "And that's the jist of this challenge. Keep in mind though that your Pokémon has to be fast and strong enough to catch you. All flying Pokémon are strong enough to carry a person, but it takes time for a Pokémon to catch you that way." He waved his hand disarmingly. "And don't panic if you don't think your bird will catch you. Three of us trainers will be down at the foot with our Pokémon out to catch you if something wrong happens. This is a matter of Pokémon and human bonding and trust."

The group collectively nodded.

Cliff, still up at the top of the ledge, shouted down, "So who wants to go first?"

"This is a piece of cake." A deep voice emerged from the group. I turned to see Pavel, the bird master himself, crossing his arms and grinning. He looked up, blonde hair waving slightly. "I'll show you wannabes the true beauty of flying Pokémon."

With that taunt (and a retort from his partner Dan), he called out his Swoobat and held on to its tail. The bat instantly climbed into the sky and put Pavel down on a ledge even higher than where the gym trainers were. Cliff huffed and protested that the other gym trainers weren't ready, but Pavel didn't give him time other than to mutter a few words.

The blonde bird-master held out his arms and leapt high into the air. His Swoobat circled around him a couple of times, as if dancing with its trainer, and allowed itself to be grabbed around the neck. The two flew down with a few twirls to complete their show of utter superiority, and then landed on the ground. Pavel gave us a daring look, as if saying 'you know you can't top that'.

All of us, including the argumentative Dan, stood with jaws slack. Yep, there was no way I could best that.


End file.
